When the system notification announcing the end of the safety period flared across the night sky, euphoria swept through the goblin camp. The five Heroes - Korgath, Skitter, Vrak, Grul, and Mila - halted their march to savor the moment.
"Everyone, gather 'round!" Korgath bellowed, leaning on his club fashioned from the bone of a giant wolf.
He ordered a rest, but as he surveyed his "army," a surge of irritation prickled at him. In just one day of marching, he had already lost 20 goblins. Even more infuriating was the fact that the old village chief had been whispering behind his back, urging the inhabitants to stay in their pens. From the original 200 battle-ready goblins, he had only managed to drag away 70, and of those, only 50 remained. He quickly suppressed his anger, though; to him, these creatures were mere cannon fodder - tools to achieve his desired power.
At that moment, one of the goblin-heroes spoke up hesitantly, tamping down his excitement: "The safety period just ended... isn't it too soon for us to try and kill Demon Kings?"
Korgath smiled coldly. "What are you so afraid of?" he asked, his voice dripping with confidence. "The fact that the protection period just dropped is exactly why we have the best chance. The Demon Kings haven't had time to develop yet. This is when they are at their weakest."
Skitter, toyed with a knife, nodded immediately. "The boss is right. These goblins are useful to us now because the enemies are still weak. If we don't use them as shields now, they'll be useless in the face of the demons' growing power later on."
The other Heroes - Grul, Vrak, and Mila - nodded, understanding the brutal logic of their leader.
Suddenly, Vrak began tracing his finger in the air, fiddling with his system. "There are several Demon Kings nearby!" he shouted excitedly. "Which one should we choose?"
Heroes possessed a unique functionality that Demon Kings could only envy. While the demons had access to chat and trade, Heroes had access to a System Map. All Demon King nests within a 100-kilometer radius appeared on it automatically as clear markers. Currently, their map showed about 8 or 9 such targets.
"Let's go to the Valley of Darkness!" Korgath decided firmly. "We were heading that way regardless, and that nest is closest to our position. If we don't destroy it now, it will surely grow and become a mortal threat to us in the future."
"In that case, it's better to strike preemptively," Mila added, her eyes flashing with a cold light.
The dim-witted goblins, unaware they were being treated as disposable tools, howled with delight at the call to battle, feeling the power radiating from their new gods. The entire group set off toward the Darkness Woods, ready for their first great battle.
The experiences of the last few days had made Korgath realize he stood before a chance to crush everyone and become a king above kings. He understood that as a Hero, he could level up by killing monsters and through grueling training, but that process was far too slow. He knew that as a goblin - a creature naturally weak - he would have to spend years fighting wild beasts to become truly powerful. The only way to break the limits imposed by his race was to kill Demon Kings; he believed the reward for defeating one was equal to years of murderous training.
The Demon King resting in the Valley of Darkness was to be the starting point of his path to greatness - the first victim and a milestone on his way to becoming the strongest. Under the cover of night, the five Heroes and their group of 50 adult goblins crept into enemy territory. Although Heroes can detect Demon King nests, they themselves remain undetectable to a demon's senses, making the demon lords exceptionally vulnerable to sneak attacks.
Despite their scouting advantage, the Heroes only knew the general location of the territory; they could not pinpoint the exact location of the Demon King's Altar, the core of the nest. This turned the start of the encounter into a battle for information, where Demon Kings had to be constantly ready to repel intruders, and Heroes had to watch out for traps and servants lurking in the dark.
Suddenly, one of Korgath's companions whispered excitedly: "Boss! I found it! That ahead is definitely the nest!"
In the deathly silent forest, they spotted a group of about 20 to 30 skeletons. The fact that the bone-walkers moved in organized groups was clear proof that these were not ordinary wild monsters, but servants of a Demon King guarding their territory.
"Look at that..." Korgath whispered, the glint in his eyes reflected in the edge of his wolf-bone club. "Those are the Demon King's skeletons!"
The Heroes froze in the thick undergrowth of the Darkness Woods, observing the clearing. In the silence of the night forest, interrupted only by the rhythmic thud of tools, about 30 skeletons were moving. They did not move chaotically; they formed organized work crews that were currently felling a massive tree, preparing raw materials for their master.
"He managed to get this many soldiers in just a few days?" Skitter asked in a whisper, nervously spinning his knives.
"It's unsettling," Mila muttered, gripping her staff. "If he fielded such a labor army in less than a week, then if we gave him six months, he'd slaughter us all without blinking."
Korgath smiled wickedly, his face twisting into a grimace of pure greed. He knew he had the advantage - he could sense the nest while the Demon King was blind to his presence until the first corpses dropped.
"Hehe. The stronger the forces he's gathered now, the more powerful the 'drop' we'll get from his corpse," he cackled softly. "All of this... these resources, this gold, and this experience... it will soon be ours!"
Grul and Vrak exchanged knowing looks, preparing their skills. They knew the altar, the heart of the nest, had to be close, and these skeletons were a simple map leading straight to the center of the Valley.
"LET'S GO!" Korgath suddenly roared, abandoning all caution. "Don't let a single one escape!"
At that signal, the 50 goblins - treated by the Heroes as mere meat - burst from the darkness with a deafening shriek. They threw themselves at the skeleton soldiers who had been peacefully felling trees. The undead knew neither fear nor pain, so as soon as their empty sockets registered the intruders, they instinctively abandoned their work to resist the invaders. Both sides immediately locked in brutal combat.
Ordinary goblins are fragile and weak on their own, inferior in strength even to basic skeletons. However, they are intelligent life forms that make up for their lack of physical brawn with cunning and ruthless teamwork. Using primitive tactics and overwhelming numbers, they were able to engage the bone-walkers, searching for gaps in their defense.
The true devastation, however, was wrought by the five goblin Heroes. Their power - and Korgath's physical might in particular - drastically exceeded the capabilities of ordinary servants. With a single strike of his bone club, Korgath turned undead ribs to dust, while the other Heroes easily repelled successive groups of skeletons.
"Hahaha!" Korgath cackled, seeing bone fragments flying. "Is this all this King can muster? Pathetic! We've already won!"
Morale among the five Heroes was incredibly high. Filled with bloodlust and greed, they truly believed they would go down in history as the first group to topple a Demon King and seize his riches.
***
At that same moment, in the very heart of the Valley of Eternal Darkness, on the violet step of the Altar, Lilith's eyes suddenly snapped open. A cold, predatory flash appeared in them, and a series of red system notifications flared before her face:
[WARNING!]
[YOUR TERRITORY IS UNDER ATTACK!]
[YOUR SKELETON SOLDIER HAS BEEN KILLED!]
[YOUR SKELETON SOLDIER HAS BEEN KILLED!]
[...]
Lilith slowly looked up at Lysandra, Mina, and Kala, who were already standing beside her. The succubi were no longer in their human disguises - their demonic forms emanated powerful, dark energy, and their wings quivered nervously in anticipation of an order.
"Someone has attacked us," Lilith said, her voice sounding like the edge of a blade. "They just wiped out one of our skeleton squads in the woods."