System's POV

Thirteen watched as Ratatoskr smashed the head of a Goblin with a single punch.

All Ratmen were supposed to be under the restriction the Goblin Emperor had placed upon their race using the power of the Shard of Origin.

But the White Ratman, who had undergone an evolution, was able to break free from this restriction and finally got the revenge he always wanted.

Even without Thirteen's help, Ratatoskr would definitely awaken a power that would free him from the bindings of the Origin Shard, allowing him to save his race from oppression.

Thirteen had merely sped up this process by allowing Ratatoskr to drink the Blood of the Red Dragon they had slain in the Valbarra Archipelago three years ago.

The Hero of the Ratmen race came from a family of warriors, so he already knew how to fight.

However, Thirteen knew that Ratatoskr would be unable to defeat the Rank 8 Goblin Emperor with his current Rank, which was a Rank 4 Alpha Monster.

It would take a few years before he reached maturity and carry out the role that he was supposed to play.

But since Thirteen didn't have time to wait for him to grow, he forcefully made Ratatoskr gain battle experience as he fought the Goblins on their home turf.

Fighting alongside him was none other than Erica and Sherry, who had gotten close during the past few days.

While they still bickered from time to time, they would not hesitate to work together in order to bring down a powerful foe.

Of course, while everyone was busy fighting, the teenage boy was busy sipping tea and admiring the blood-soaked battlefield with Tiona.

"Zion! Are you really just going to watch and let us do all the fighting?!" Erica shouted as she cast a dozen Magic Bullets at the Goblins that were surrounding her.

"Yes," Thirteen replied before sipping the tea in his hand. "Your bitterness makes my tea taste better. Keep it up, Great Sorceress Erica."

"You f*cker!" Erica growled in anger.

However, as much as she wanted to kick the teenage boy and pull him into the fray, she knew that she wouldn't be able to do it.

She truly didn't understand why an Apostle like her was unable to beat someone who was only a Rookie.

No matter how much she thought about it, she still couldn't understand how Zion was stronger than her.

The only thing she could do was shout and nag at him, and maybe pinch his cheek or pull on his ear.

But when it came to actual fighting, the teenage boy could easily beat her in a few moves. In the end, he would even spank her bum while telling her that she needed to be disciplined.

After that traumatizing experience during her training, she no longer had the courage to challenge Zion to a spar ever again.

Sherry, on the other hand, was getting used to fighting in close combat. With the help of her Blade Panther, Mors, she was able to hold her ground even when fighting many enemies at once.

Of course, she could only fight Rank 1 Goblins and beat Rank 2 Goblins with Mor's help. Even so, her growth was incredibly fast, and even Erica had to admit that Sherry had a lot of potential.

'I guess Zion saw the potential in her,' Erica thought.

What the Sorceress didn't know was that her guess was far from the truth.

Thirteen took good care of both Erica and Sherry due to one reason and one reason only.

Both of them were Cannon Fodders.

Although he had no idea when the two of them would have to face their fated day, he would definitely ensure that both of them would have the strength to overcome this hurdle.

As someone who had decided to fight against Fate, he would not just stand by and let his people suffer under his watch.

Cristopher, Erica, and Sherry—the three of them were the Cannon Fodders that he was raising.

By the time he was done with them, all three would become powerhouses who would accompany him in his battle against Fate.

Suddenly, Thirteen glanced toward the North and narrowed his eyes.

"I want all three of you to wrap things up in five minutes," Thirteen ordered. "If you're still not done by then, I'll make sure that the three of you will undergo hellish training for three days."

Erica, who had already experienced such hellish training, no longer hesitated and unleashed fireballs left and right.

Ratatoskr, who had been forced to fight against T1 and his Troll Party had also experienced a one-sided beating, and he sure as hell didn't want that to happen again.

Sherry, who still hadn't been baptized by Thirteen's direct training, noticed that Erica and Ratatoskr truly looked in a hurry as they annihilated everything that stood in their way.

Four minutes later, Thirteen clapped his hands and ordered the three of them to gather at his location.

A moment later, Rocky swallowed them whole and left the place in haste.

Several minutes later, dozens of Goblins, who were riding on Dire Wolves, arrived at the scene.

When they saw the devastation and corpses of their comrades, all of them shouted in anger.

"They died just recently," a Goblin Scout reported to the Goblin Leader who had accompanied them. "The blood is still fresh. I believe that it hasn't even been half an hour since they died."

The other scouts also looked at the footprints on the ground, but the only thing they saw was the footprints of Lizardmen.

Tiona's subordinates had erased the footprints of Erica, Sherry, and Ratatoskr and replaced them with the molded footprints of the Lizardmen that littered the battlefield.

But what confused the Goblin Scouts was that the footprints only showed that they fought inside the camp.

They didn't see any signs that the Lizardmen had left the battlefield, so the Goblin Scouts all took out their weapons and observed their surroundings.

Several minutes later, the Goblin Leader deemed that there was no enemy in sight, so he hurriedly ordered one of his scouts to report to their Emperor that another Goblin Camp had fallen under the hands of the enemies.

All the Goblins were starting to get terrified now, and a mass migration was taking place.

They were all headed toward the Goblin City, where their Emperor ruled, in the hopes that he would be able to protect them from the unknown assailants who were raiding one goblin camp after another.

Because of this, they momentarily forgot about the ongoing war between the Lizardmen and Ratmen.

It was normal to focus on internal problems more than external wars that were taking place far from their domain.

Even the Goblin Emperor was starting to get annoyed because the reports always said the same thing.

In every Goblin Camp that was attacked, they found not a single survivor, only Lizardmen footprints.

As much as the Goblin Emperor tried to think that the Lizardmen attacking them was next to impossible, it didn't change the fact that only Lizardmen footprints were found in the scene of carnage.

This led the Goblin Emperor to believe that the Lizardmen had acquired a method to travel under the ground or in the sky, which was why their footprints didn't lead anywhere.

"Can you take a look at it?" The Goblin Emperor asked the middle-aged man who was standing beside his throne.

"Very well," the middle-aged man nodded. "I'm also curious to see just who is daring enough to challenge your authority."

The middle-aged man then asked the Goblins to bring him a bowl of water so that he could use his scrying spell to pinpoint their enemy's location.

However, no matter how many times and how hard he tried, the only thing he could see was a pair of green glowing eyes, staring back at him from the darkness of the Abyss.