Blackmoon village was located between Black moon lake and the cold valley, it's territory encroached into a portion of the valley and the black moon lake, so Alex grouped the 20 goblin warriors into four teams and them proceeded to have them scout from the village gate to this two areas twice a day and report to him.

This was how he found out that there were about three tribes in Blackmoon territory, with two out of them being Orc tribes and the last one being a Goblin tribe.

Unlike the ominous Lake where no one dare to crossed or approach, the cold valleys was an entirely different matter. the valley connected the two neighboring nations and it was traversable, although that doesn't make it the best of places as Crossing here was a thousand times more dangerous than going through the normal route.

First was the harsh snowy weather that was around the same level of Antarctica, then the harassment from magic beasts made it worse.

None of the nations used this route to lead their army over for battle even when the war started in the later years of the Novel.

Which was why he was secretly shocked when he heard today that a carriage was passing through here, Alex watched the approaching caravan team, that crossed the cold valleys from Nisipurl Empire borders and could only shake his head.

'As expected, they aren't anything good' Alex thought inwardly, just looking at the twenty something cages being dragged by Cow like beasts, he matched their description with the \u003cShaded Fang's\u003e group.

In the Novel this group was known for two things and that was slave trading and Gladiators, the Black cow creatures where a testament to that as they were the only ones with the taming method of this carnivorous beast.

Hidden amongst the rocks and trees, Alex reminded Urim to stay quiet by placing his index finger before his lips while making gestures with his eyes.

He turned to the goblin team of five and repeated the same action before looking at the caravan once more.

Some cages held goblins and Kobolds while some held orcs but the center most cage was abnormally huge and was made with a strange metal with no room to see what was within but a few small holes for ventilation.

_____________________________

An Orc slave sat in his cage that had been at the back of the convoy. His hands were raw with blisters and the skin on his back ripped open by whips. The shackles around his ankles looked heavy, and after the thirty hours he'd been sat there to work no sleep had been permitted.

The overseer says they could not rest since they too aren't resting.

From the Orc's mannerism and intelligence shown in his eye, allows you to know that he had gone through his first evolution.

Presently His thoughts had become random as the delirium set in and he lost track of where he was or the consequences for misbehaviour.

At this time, he seemed to have noticed Alex watching them and turned in his direction. the latter was a little shocked but chose to play it cool.

the Orc continued to stare for about twenty seconds until he spotted the tattoo on Alex's shoulder, He released a sigh.

Standing up abruptly he grabbed at the neck of the overseer riding next to his carriage, one punch made all the stronger by the adrenaline in his system.

The man head was squashed like a water melon before dropping from his horse and the orc slave stepped back with a bunch of keys in his hand, bewildered and confused the other shadow fang's men hurried over.

In seconds the Orc was out of his cage, he tossed the keys into the next cage in a practised manner, the other overseers were soon there in force and they rained down blows on him until his blood soaked the Grass beneath him.

but this was not without casualties, Shadow fangs men were scattered on the floors and soon more orcs were out of their cage.

Soon about four dark hooded men charged at the fight scene from the front of the caravan in top speed, that was when Alex secretly approached the convoy.

ROOAAAR!!!!

The Orc slave roared as he picked up a longsword. His body seemed to have swelled up, and the veins on his arms began to pop out and wriggle like worms. Due to overt congestion of blood, his skin emitted smoke as he continued his battlecry.

"Rage?!" Alex squinted at the Orc, "A berserker huh?!".

At the same time, one of the hooded men rolled forward and loaded a special bolt into his crossbow that had a few sparks on them.

The special bolt struck the Orc and caused a stun, and the Orc immediately turned his head toward the hooded man who fired the bolt with red eyes.

Apart from the first bolt, most of the other bolts missed him as the orc charged at him with the \u003cOrc's charge\u003e skill before using a horizontal slash at the end.

The hooded man turned into Black gas and changed positions before loading another bolt on his crossbow.

At this time Alex ordered the Goblins to use the frost bombs against the guards.

The bombs sprayed frigid mana upon exploding, sending another frost bomb at the exposed hooded men.

The man rolled back out of surprise but was still hit by some of the bomb. it gradually froze its way through the buckler and the layer of black leather armor, emitting white smoke as it froze the man's left arm.

He growled in pain, but still managed to cut off his arm while clenching his teeth.

The berserk Orc with bloodshot eyes charged in with his sword held high. He closed the five-meter gap with a single leap through the air and hacked at the man.

_Clang!_ The sound of metal and earth striking one another broke out along with the earth parting way for a distance of one meter. he had separated the man from his lower body like hot knife through butter.

Soon flame bombs came flying into the fray as the creature in the Massive cage roared and began to shake it's cage furiously.

It shook its cage as it attempted to body slam it, but the cage only tossed over.

At the same time, With a \u003cLeap\u003e, Alex joined the chaos with Urim following closely behind with a charge, the Goblins continued to cause chaos by throwing more Bombs. the Berserk orc counterattacked another hooded man's attack and stabbed his back.

A dark green fluid oozed out of the gaping wound.

'Dark elf!!' Alex stare wide eyed as he gripped his battle axe after beheading a guard before chasing after the last dark hooded man, while viewing the latter's stats.

_________

Race: Elite Dark elf variant

Class: Assassin

Level: 17(Order of the first circle)

Power rating: 4349

Relationship: None.

__________________________________

"hmm?... did he just notice me checking his stats?...is this an ability of a Variant? but he he Variant..." Alex wondered as he licked his lips, barely holding back his excitement.

In the Novel, anything with the Variant title had more mana within them,making them more powerful than normal but that also means more Exp for him.

How could he sit back and let this wonderful EXP slip through his fingers?.

As he got ready to fight, he felt a baleful aura from the silent carriage that had been leading the convoy. even the monstrosity that had been thrashing about within the massive cage, quietened down.