Chapter 8: In a trance_1

Felen, despite its long history, truly lacked any notable textbooks when it came to tactical strategies.

There was no helping it, as the history of this world belonged to the Giant Dragons and Giants in the earlier half, while Elves shone brightly in the middle period. Only in the last few thousand years had Humans slowly taken to the historical stage. During this period, a few brilliant human civilizations emerged, either developing psychic power or magic technology trees. Take the Nesserel Empire, for example, which even developed Floating Cities. What use was there for strategy and tactics when one could simply fly a Floating City over an enemy's capital, get up close, and relentlessly bombard them with magic?

The most important factor was Felen's high-magic environment, which resulted in overwhelming personal combat prowess; some monsters were incredibly strong, and Giant Dragons filled the skies. Most civilizations were like isolated city-state civilizations—Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep City were the most typical examples.

Many strategies revolved around personal combat strength and rarely involved tactical deployment of troops, so naturally, few devoted their thoughts to this aspect.

This didn't mean that strategy and tactics were completely useless. Hadn't the top battle fanatic among the gods, Tempus, the God of War, secretly fostered an illegitimate daughter, Red Knight, and using last year's divine turbulence, promptly promoted her to his subordinate deity in charge of strategy and tactics? He likely saw potential in this area.

When it came to strategy and tactics, Zhang You's ancestors were the most adept. Forced by Father Zhang in a duck-stuffing manner, he had read many ancient books on this topic, including the Martial Arts Seven Books, which comprised seven military treatises—The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Art of War by Wu, The Six Secret Teachings, Sima's Art of War, The Three Strategies of Huang Shigong, The Book of Wei Liaozi, and Questions and Replies between Li Wei Gong and Others.

But reading was one thing, and memorizing was quite another, especially when it came to those abstruse classical texts.

For the moment, all Gaven could recall was the principle from The Art of War by Sun Tzu that the best strategy is often to avoid confrontation.

Books are never appreciated as much as when they are needed.

The ancients didn't deceive me; had I known what would come today, I would have committed the Martial Arts Seven Books to heart, no matter what it took.

Gaven wasn't a person to give up easily. After delivering Zalanda's summons to the hands of the Nort Militia captains, he hurried back to his room, locked the doors and windows, set a simple alarm trap, and then, still dressed, with his one-handed sword, crawled into bed. In a matter of seconds, he entered a trance-like state.

This was a special ability bestowed upon Gaven by the Elf Bloodline flowing within him, a unique trance state characteristic of the Elf race.

Trance is the common term, but Elves prefer to call it meditation, a semi-conscious deep meditation. Four hours of deep meditation could replace eight hours of good sleep for a normal human. This was also why Elves were immune to sleep magic, for, barring unconsciousness, they rarely actually slept.

Whether standing, lying down, or sitting, one could enter a trance, but in terms of efficacy, the best was still to lie in a comfortable bed, since the body would also relax once in trance.

The trance state was very mysterious; not only could one feel the state of one's body and the surroundings within a four to five-meter radius, but one's consciousness would also be highly active. Memories in the mind, much like snippets of film, would occasionally tumble out, letting one experience them all over again.

This was why Elves, with lifespans of seven to eight centuries, still had vivid recollections of events from several centuries ago, because they always deeply explored their memories during deep meditation.

However, which specific memories would surface wasn't entirely within Gaven's control. This was a bit like dreaming, but not quite the same.

Zhang You the Second firmly believed in the existence of Psychic Power precisely because he would occasionally enter a trance state during deep sleep.

According to the only useful method Zhang You the Second could conjecture, it was "Daytime thoughts lead to nighttime dreams."

Before sleeping, by reinforcing one's memory of a certain matter, the things emerging in the mind during trance were most likely related to it. Of course, it could also be just dreaming, where any odd or ancient thing could emerge.

A night without dreams.

Gaven failed to conjure the various ancient military texts, but did manage to bring forth a hundred or so poems from the Tang and Song dynasties. They were of no use in Felen. Translated into the common tongue, they would completely lose their poetic essence, which the native people of Felen couldn't appreciate.

When Gaven ended his trance, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

But someone got up earlier than him; Zalanda was already leading a group of the Nort Militia captains, running east and west, tactically deploying their forces. It was unclear whether they had stayed up all night or had grabbed a nap.

Compared to them, Gaven was indeed a bit too relaxed.

Zalanda and his men were fully implementing the concept of making every second count. The sooner they evacuated from Nort Castle, the fewer uncertainties they would face.

Inviting the enemy into the urn.

To implement this strategy, the hardest part wasn't inviting the enemy in—it was convincing one's own people to accept such a bold and dangerous plan.

If Rogan were to lead the implementation of this plan, there'd be no point in even thinking about it; it would surely fail, as their own people would turn on each other before anything else.

If Zalanda were to implement it in his dominion of Nort Castle, then there would be no issue at all.

Yesterday, when Gaven dared to propose this plan to Zalanda, it was built on this very understanding.

"Today, we fight not for Thacel, nor for the Nort Family, nor for me, Zalanda, but for ourselves. Victory will surely be ours!" Zalanda, in full battle gear, sat on his warhorse, lowered his face armor, and raised his longsword high, his fighting spirit fervent.

"Victory will surely be ours!"

"Victory will surely be ours!!"

"Victory will surely be ours!!!"

The entire Nort Castle's will to fight was ignited by Zalanda's few brief but fiery words.

"Open the gates!" Zalanda commanded once more.

Amidst a creaking and groaning noise, the heavy gates of Nort City slowly opened, like a monster opening its maw, waiting for the prey to deliver itself.

"Haka... Gugah..."—Goblin language "What's going on?"

"*Sahhara..."—Goblin language "I don't know!"

"Gaharla..."—Goblin language "Charge, the humans are running away!"

The sudden action of Nort City caused a disturbance among the goblins outside, and a cacophony of shrill and irritating goblin voices debated the humans' unusual behavior, but with their limited intelligence, they were hardly able to deduce anything substantial.

When one green-skinned dwarf, chattering away, brandished his primitive weapon and charged towards the gates of Nort City, the other goblins didn't need any further encouragement from the hobgoblins behind; they bellowed and joined the charging rank.

There was a reason goblins were nicknamed 'fodder fools'; their actions at this moment thoroughly exemplified the origin of the term 'fool'.

Especially the goblins running at the front, who took the lead and charged into the city gates—many more goblins were spurred on, and they too began to charge.

In their minds, as long as they could break through the human gates, the humans would be like sheep awaiting slaughter—even if the humans were nearly twice their size and brawn, they would still be at the goblins' mercy.