No PC and no internet for a whole week. It's some stupid problems with all ISPs in my country so I can't do anything until they finally fix it yesterday. Well this is chap 10 hope you'll like it.

**********************************************************

It's been 2 days since he completed the training. His teacher registered him to this expedition force but only after he joined the force he find out that most equipment are self-provide. The army only provide standard weapons such as spear or javelin as replacement in combat. Without any armor and only a shield as a graduation gift from his teacher and the sword from the beginning village he start his first campaign. His shield is a Theuros which is a symbol for his completion of basic training.

The expedition force's target is a Goblin lair inside a forest which have many wolves and small monsters that close to the city. The main aim of the trip is to train the new soldiers so most of them are ranked "Ekdromoi" only a few "Hoplite" He is also ranked "Ekdromoi" and given the equipment he bought he can only have two choice.

The first choice is he pick up a spear and fight in the formation of the main force. The second one is he pick up a few javelins and work as a Peltast. He decide to go with the second choice.

A Peltast is a unit that using javelin to attack enemies before the main force get in melee and retreat before the enemies reach them. Once the main force engage in battle it's their job to protect the flanks and also flanking enemies if possible, but the main problem is this unit often consist of weaker troops and no armor so they can be easily killed in melee by any main line troops. But any sane commander won't throw away his range unit that easily.

He has decided that he won't risk his life in his first campaign so he won't go up in the front line. Bad news for him is his commander don't think so.

(he now look like this without the helmet: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-4BtAsHchh5A/UmmAPdcjgbI/AAAAAAAADQY/bUNz0IwiMqg/w1920-h1200-no/2013-10-25_00304.jpg)

- You over there, get out of the row and come here.

He run out and get in front of the commander. The commander is a strong man which taller than him by half a head. The man has big and strong muscle which make him look like a statue from the museum. But the scars all over his skin clearly give out that he is a veteran on the battlefield.

-Why the hell you stand on the back row? It's your place on the front.

- yes, sir.

- what did you say? I didn't hear anything.

- YES,SIR

- I am not deaf don't shout on you superior's face. Get back in the front and make sure that I'll never see you in back row again.

First battle, front row, most dangerous place, highest chance to die. He silently cursing the commander while get back in the formation.

Honestly no one want to die even if it's a game. And the fastest way to die is get to the front. He know that but the commander's order is crystal clear.

- Okay, STOP. We've reached the destination. 1 mile from here is the Goblin lair. We are expecting they'll field their army to face us about half a mile ahead and another defend line at the lair entrance. Switch to battle formation, all troops line formation. Peltasts up front. Heavy infantries in middle. Support divisions follow behind.

As ordered the troops get into formation but since most of them are newbies without any battle experience they become so tense up to the point that if someone touch their back they may jump up to the sky.

It's overwhelming when you are in middle of thousand men marching forward, somehow you don't feel the fear of being in battle for the first time but you feel exciting instead.

As for the others peltasts they aren't sharing that feeling with him. Scare they are but they still follow the order and march forward to the goblin lair. It's not like they don't want to live since unlike the player all NPC only have one life to live. They know how precious their lives are but they also know that only by become stronger they can protect their own lives. Living in this world, the strong devour the weak. It's not like there are no chivalry or honor code but not even half people follow them. You can't expect a hero appear every time your life is in danger. The best way to stay alive in this world is become strong yourself.

In the distance he can see the goblin have gathered their forces. Their number is at least double the expedition force and the worse is they have archers. Bow range is quite longer than the javelin so 100 meters away the goblin start shooting.

- Raise shield and keep moving!

The commander shout out the order. But even with their shields raised, the peltast mostly use a small shield so they suffer a lot under the arrow. Luckily Eumenes have a theuros instead of normal pelta so he don't have to worry too much about the arrow that the goblin firing toward them.

In a battle the archers don't fire at a chosen target but firing over an area from an arc. So it's better to held shields over head.

- Peltast rush forward into firing range and return fire!

It's a good choice to attack fast because if they keep marching at the speed of melee infantry behind, they will become all dead sooner or later. But the problem is it's a late order. The peltasts have lost 30% their unit before they reach their firing range and in the end the remaining peltasts are too in-experience to be able to able to deal much damage to the goblin force. Well at least he didn't suffer from goblin range attack so he still able to kill some goblins, 2 out of 3 throw hit targets.

Critical hit!

You killed a Goblin. You received 150 exp.

Critical hit!

You killed a Goblin. You received 150 exp.

Skill Level upThrowing MasteryBeginner lv 6

The javelin is very dangerous, they can deliver a lot damages, very high critical rate but have short range and low rate of fire. Just 2 hit and he had 2 kills. Well it's also because he is lucky.

Unlike the expedition force the goblin act fast and they move their archer behind while their melee units rush forward to the peltast unit. As a range unit peltast are mainly trained in javelin throwing instead of melee and since the commander walk along with the infantry there is no one here to give command to the in experience peltast. They don't know how to react to the goblins. It's fast and very soon most peltasts at first line are dead. Eumenes hold his shield defend all the attacks pouring at him while retreat as fast as he can to the flank.

- Brothers retreat to the flank we can't hold them in a frontal attack. Let the main line infantry attack them.

Again he cursing the commander while shouting at others peltasts hoping they still able to follow order from someone else in this bloody melee. All officers were distributed among the main line infantry so once they received order and move away from the main force there is no one left to command them. It's clear that the commander have no interested in the live of dead of peltast unit. If it's a normal player they may not know who is responsible for the deads but how could someone who have that much experience in RTS game like him do not know that it's the commander's fault.

It's just one side murder. Peltasts have no armor and very little melee experience so facing the goblin they falling like crops. Lucky that somehow they was able to retreat to the flank. The goblin chasing after them now expose their flank to the main line of the expedition force.

Well at least the commander isn't a stupid one when it come to commanding the main line infantry. Seeing a big chance to turn the battle around he ordered the infantries to charge immediately into the side of goblin army. Facing sudden attack from the flank the goblin panic and halt their chase on the peltasts.

Under the protection of the main line infantry, peltast unit or the remaining of them now able to re-organize. It's a nightmare when they realize that about 70% their unit is gone. Only about 60 peltasts survived after the first battle. It is worse that they have completely lost their morale. One look at those guys you can see that they are now just sheeps waiting for slaughter if they stay in battle any longer. Luckily the commander are too busy commanding the main line so he have no time to spare for them.

It's not much time since the battle started but mentally all peltasts is exhausted. They didn't expected to get caught in melee or being treated as cannon fodder in their first battle. Most of them registered in this expedition the get some fighting experience, not to die, if they knew they are going to die like that no one going to join this expedition force.

The goblins after a while trying to hold the human back but they was taken by surprise and their flank was crushed before they can do anything so in the end of the day they flee the battle and run back to their lair.

That day about 300 human troops was dead mostly were peltasts while the goblin lost about 800 melee ones but since the goblin always have much higher number than human it isn't much a good news at all.

Your side win the battle! You received 50 exp as reward for your contribution and 50 exp as winner's bonus.

Level up! You received 5 undistributed points!

Skill Level upTactic and formationBeginner lv 6

Skill Level upLine formationBeginner lv 6

It seem that by participated in battle that used formation he received exp for Tactic and formation skill and exp for the formation skill that he was deployed in. Since the commander didn't order they to hold ground he don't get any exp for that skill. And he finally level up. Level 1 to level 2 need 500 exp in total but when he check the next level requirement his face become so dark since it require 2500 exp which mean 5 times the amount he's gained since he start the game.

After battle atmosphere in the army become worse when commander blame peltast unit instead of taking it himself. He said the peltast is weak and that they can't even fight some useless goblin. That's when they snapped, all peltasts refused to follow orders from commander any more, some peltasts that came from noble families threaten commander that their family will bring this stupid battle in front of the next Parliament meeting that finally make the commander back off and decide that peltasts are allowed to act as they pleased in the next battle.

It's actually not gonna hurt Minos city's military power that much since about half peltast unit are slaves that followed their masters into battle, they taken up the front rows back when the battle started so most dead slaves can be replaced later on. But it's not much a big different if you look at it from a bigger view. The remaining peltasts that have almost no fighting spirit after a huge blow from the first battle won't do any good for the main force which has 1200 Hoplite heavy infantries in the next battle. Nothing much gonna change even if they join the battle. As it's a siege attack into the goblin lair so range unit like peltasts don't not fare well in such battle. Considered that their condition if they really join the battle it's like having 60 more corpses after the next battle, just like a drop of water into the sea..

Tomorrow they gonna attack the goblin's lair. Since peltasts are allowed freely move, most peltasts decide to stay in the back. Seeing hundreds of people die in just 20 minutes or so is really a big blow to their morale. But he isn't an NPC, he is a player and a veteran in battle games who have seen more than a few ten thousand of soldiers died in a single battle so he didn't flinch much. One part of it is Eternal Glory don't have "blood & gore" which make the player not really scared of dying anymore. Not much people want to see a field of bloody corpses and body parts anyway. He has registered to an assault unit in tomorrow battle. As for now he is sleeping peacefully ready for what to come.