Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1854 Bloodfang the Gnoll

When facing a target whose strength is far inferior to one's own, mental perception can have an effect similar to a lie detector, basically confirming that the other party is not lying.

Through a simple questioning, they quickly learned that the orc's name was Bloodfang, and he was an orc of the gnoll race.

In the human perception, orcs are generally strong and have physical abilities that far surpass those of humans, but the reality is not so.

This is a stereotype.

Indeed, some orcs are far stronger than humans, but others are not known for their physical prowess.

The jackal in front of them was a typical 'hound', and was shorter than most adult men in the Great Zhou.

As it turned out, their individual combat abilities were indeed not strong, and they mainly relied on group hunting for survival.

Each hunt involves at least several dozen gnolls who, with their swift movements and tactical coordination, surround and intercept their prey to complete the hunt.

Meanwhile, their hunting targets are mainly small and medium-sized animals. Whenever they encounter large animals or ferocious beasts, they will choose to go around them if they have a choice.

This also means they generally don't harm humans.

It's not because of any moral concept, it's just that it's difficult to handle.

Humans, like them, live in groups and coordinate tactical actions. If a battle breaks out between them and humans, it will quickly escalate into a large-scale group war, at which point they will inevitably suffer heavy casualties; the risk is too great.

To put it bluntly, it's called bullying the weak and fearing the strong; to put it nicely, it's called the wisdom of survival, a result of weighing the pros and cons.

In essence, this is quite similar to that of early humans.

Their gnoll tribe originally lived in the nearby desert and wasteland areas, making a living by hunting, and their lives were passable.

Until one day, those guys in mechs arrived.

At this moment, for the first time, they heard each other's name from Bloodfang's mouth: Goblin!

According to Bloodfang's description, the undead officers reached a conclusion through intelligence analysis.

What is confirmed at present is that these goblins are short in stature, estimated to be only 60 or 70 centimeters tall, even shorter than dwarves.

It has short legs but very long arms that can almost reach past its knees. It has a large head, pointed ears, and a hooked nose.

They were weak in combat, but they had a lot of strange and unusual weapons and equipment, and their numbers were too great for the enemy to handle.

The goblins launched a full-scale invasion right from the start, massacring their people...

"You lied."

Looking at the indignant Bloodfang, the extraordinary mage said something indifferently.

Bloodfang's expression froze instantly.

"Okay, when we first made contact, we were the ones who made the first move."

After all, judging from the description just now, the goblin's short and thin appearance perfectly matches the gnolls' hunting standards.

Furthermore, given the sheer number of goblins, the gnoll tribes at the time almost thought they had found a long-term meal ticket, so they launched an ambush on their home turf, initially succeeding a few times.

But after the goblins organized themselves and sent out troops to annihilate them, they were quickly routed, and the massacre began.

The undead officers remained silent on the matter.

It is generally normal for two forces to come into contact, test each other, and then break out into armed conflict.

When one side is clearly weaker than the other, not every powerful force will be willing to coexist peacefully, especially since the gnolls started the conflict first. During this time, the extraordinary mage noticed that Bloodfang hesitated, clearly holding back and not revealing everything.

However, he did not rush to ask further questions, but instead quietly looked at the other person.

I wonder if it was because I felt a little uneasy being stared at by those hollow eye sockets burning with soul fire.

Bloodfang gritted his teeth and spoke again...

"At the same time, those goblins seem to want a kind of black mud near our territory. After they occupied our territory and drove us all away, they found the black mud near our territory and seemed very happy."

"Black mud?"

"Well, it's not exactly mud, but there's a big black puddle of something sticky and it smells really weird."

As Bloodfang described the situation with some difficulty, the soul fire in the undead officer's eyes suddenly flickered.

Clearly, he realized that the black, sticky stuff in Bloodfang's mouth was probably oil!

This undead officer was a former officer in the Northeast Army. He died in a previous war against the Undead King and was transformed into an undead after death.

As a member of the Northeast Army, he was originally stationed behind the fortress, which was the most important oil-producing area of ​​their Great Zhou Dynasty. He was extremely familiar with oil.

They also knew that it was a very important industrial fuel.

Think about the goblin mechs that seem to be cutting-edge technology, and then think about oil. Now, many things become clear.

【I see.】

During this time, sensing the expectant look in Bloodfang's eyes, the undead officer slowly spoke...

"Don't worry, since we promised to save your life, we will naturally keep our word."

After speaking, the undead officer's tone became more serious.

"Bloodfang, are you willing to submit to my Great Zhou? To abide by the laws of my Great Zhou and serve my Great Zhou?"

Although Bloodfang didn't quite understand what they were saying, the general idea was to follow them.

Bloodfang wasn't unwilling, after all, given the current situation and the goblin siege, even if he were released, he might not survive.

"I'm willing, but... could you take my people with you? My people would definitely be willing to submit too!"

The gnolls' primary means of survival is through group hunting, which makes their collective consciousness relatively strong.

Bloodfang's idea was simple: having lost their homeland under the goblin army's extermination, they had only two options to survive: either defeat the goblins or migrate as a whole.

The former is no longer realistic, while the latter is extremely risky.

The risks of migration come mainly from two aspects: the extreme environment of the desert and the lack of a clear destination.

At the same time, these two factors will also interact to some extent.

They didn't know if they could successfully find the next settlement, and in the process, they might very well die on the way.

Now that they have clearly decided to submit to the Great Zhou, at least their destination is clear.

In this way, at least half of the invisible risks have been avoided.

Based on this premise, there is another very important reason: compared to a person going to a completely unfamiliar place to survive alone, bringing an entire tribe with him means that at least there will be someone to look after him, and he will feel more at ease.

(End of this chapter)