Goblin Heavy Dependence

Chapter 111 Adeline

"Boss, are you just going to let him go like this?"

There was a hint of confusion on Abby's somewhat immature face.

The wooden shield with iron edges that was held in front of him was slowly lowered, and his right hand was still holding the one-handed sword that he had just bought.

A few minutes ago, he faced the black-haired adventurer with sharp features and a cold aura.

The situation reached a stalemate.

Even the mist floating in the air seemed to be solidified, so that he didn't even dare to breathe deeply.

Just when Abby felt that he was about to face the first "real" battle in his short adventurer career.

The woman "Adeline", whom he called "Boss" and also the captain of the team, took the initiative to lead them and took a few steps back.

At the same time, he held the one-handed hammer in his hand in reverse and swung it gently towards the opponent twice like a pendulum.

While indicating that he had no hostility, he gave the initiative to the other side.

No reply.

Adeline, who was strong and had short hair, stood at the front of the team, motionless.

The dark brown and yellow eyes were fixed on the direction where Xia Nan's figure disappeared.

It seemed as if they were on guard against their pretending to leave, but in fact they were making a roundabout way to launch a surprise attack on them.

"What else?" Abby only heard a teasing voice behind him.

"If you don't let him go, what else do you want?"

The one who spoke was the last member of the three-man team.

"Old Berg", the archer with a longbow on his back, is at the end of the team.

Although the title contains the word "old", he is actually only about 30 or 40 years old.

But the adventure experience is quite rich.

Abby, who had just entered this industry, learned a lot of useful things.

"Didn't you tell me that before?" Abi scratched his head, but his voice gradually became lighter as the other party looked at him, "If you meet other adventurers in the wild, you must..."

"Cough cough!"

Old Berg coughed twice deliberately, trying to interrupt what the other party was about to say.

Still being heard.

Seeing Adeline turned her head and glared at him fiercely.

Old Berg smiled and explained to Abby:
"Well...it depends on the specific situation."

"Who told you to be so rigid? You have to be flexible!"

"What's wrong? What's so special about that guy just now?" Abby had been standing behind Captain Adeline, his vision blocked by the fog, so he couldn't see the specific situation on the field at all.

The most profound impression of Xia Nan was his two swords, one long and one short.

"Don't you see where this is?"

As if sensing the disapproval in Abby's tone, Berg raised his eyebrows and pointed at the dense and towering oak trees surrounding the group.

"A lone wolf who dared to come into a place like the Misty Forest would have died long ago if he didn't have something."

"What if? I think he's about the same age as me. He might have heard from somewhere that adventurers can make money, so he rushed in on a whim."

In front of acquaintances, Abi spoke stubbornly due to the stubbornness that is typical of teenagers.

"Do you think everyone is like you?" Berg shook his head, and his expression suddenly became serious again.

"That set of chain mail is well made, with perfect details. It's obviously a top-quality product sold by Rock Hammer. It must be worth at least 50 gold!"

"I haven't seen that gray sword, but it must be expensive."

"The more expensive the equipment is, the more it means nothing. Those nobles in Neum..."

"Think about it carefully." Berg interrupted the newcomer's stubbornness, "The blood on the surface of the armor is not his own."

"The most important thing is the momentum."

"After a battle, people's eyes look different than they do in normal times."

"People like you, who are obviously rookies who can't even hold a sword steadily, haven't seen much blood."

"And he's kind of...tsk tsk."

"If you run into one on the road in River Valley Town, you probably won't feel it."

"If you had the chance to look him in the eye just now, you would have understood everything."

"Is it true?" After hearing the old bird in the team say this, even though Abi was dissatisfied in his heart, he still had a little hesitation, "Is it really that magical?"

"Why did I lie to you?"

Berg rolled his eyes at the other person and ignored him.

"Can……"

Just as Abby was about to ask, Adeline in front of the two of them finally withdrew her gaze after confirming that Xia Nan had completely left, and turned back and said:
"stop."

Abby fell silent.

The expression on his face was not one of fear or timidity, but one of deep respect mixed with admiration.

Several people did not leave immediately.

Instead, under the guidance of Adeline, they came to the entrance of the nest that Xia Nan had just cleaned.

——This is the goal of their mission.

It was just a coincidence that the goblin cave, which was hidden deep in the dense forest and whose location could only be determined through the approximate coordinates provided by the association, was encountered by Xia Nan on the way back to the city and he cleaned it up.

It was for this reason that the three-person team that took on the mission to obtain information on the location of the nest happened to run into it at the entrance of the cave.

Old Berg took two steps forward and carefully looked at the environment around the cave.

He squatted down, picked up a ball of smelly wet soil without any disgust, rubbed it hard between his fingertips, and even put it to his nose to smell the smell carefully.

Then he turned around and reported to Adeline:
"It should be a medium-sized goblin nest, with a population of between 20 and 30. There are no elite individuals such as bugbears or hobgoblins."

After saying this, he seemed to remember something.

Without waiting for the other party to reply, Berg took two more steps into the cave.

He casually scraped the fungus moss next to him, put his cheek close to the wall, put his ear against the wall, closed his eyes, and concentrated.

After about three or four minutes, he opened his eyes again.

"No movement."

Adeline nodded.

Ever since she saw Xia Nan standing outside the cave covered in blood, she had already anticipated the current situation.

"Let's do it the old way?" Berg suggested at the right time, taking out two flints from his waist pocket.

"No need, just go in." Adeline stood at the entrance of the cave, her sight seemed to be able to penetrate the deep darkness in front of her and see inside, "They are all dead."

slap... slap...

The moist, cold air pressed against my skin, and a pungent stench that portended danger rushed into my nostrils with my breath.

In the corridor leading deep into the lair, Abby moved nervously.

His back was soaked with sweat, and his palms, which were tightly gripping the hilt of the sword, had turned slightly white due to excessive force.

Even though we knew from the conversation between the captain and Old Berg that this nest had most likely been cleared, there were no more enemies and there was no need to fight.

The pressure brought by the dead silence and cramped environment still made his body tremble uncontrollably.

Fortunately, Adeline, who was holding two hammers and walking at the front of the team, gave him a certain amount of courage.

If he were left here alone, his performance would be even worse.

Gollum—

The sound of swallowing saliva echoed between the empty stone walls, appearing particularly clear.

As if to relieve his inner tension, Abby licked his dry lips and said, "This should be our last mission this month, right?"

He didn't control the volume well, or maybe the quiet environment made him particularly sensitive.

The few words he spoke were echoed back into his ears by the bare stone wall, almost scaring him.

"Well, hunting day is coming soon. We need to hurry up and make some preparations after we get back this time."

The experienced old Berg spoke no differently than usual, with a steady tone.

"Finally, I can rest for a few days." The other party's calm tone also relieved Abi's pressure to a certain extent. As soon as the voice fell, he immediately replied, "If you stay here for ten days or half a month, you will be either surrounded by trees or goblins. You will go crazy."

"I don't see you killing many greenskins these days. Are you tired?"

Perhaps sensing the nervousness in the other party's words and knowing that there was no immediate danger, Berg joked with a smile.

"Why, why not?!"

very effective.

The words were meant to provoke the young man, who had just officially joined the adventurer group, and he straightened his neck and spoke in a much louder voice than before:
"Last time, I went around the tree stump and killed four goblins one by one. Have you forgotten?"

"They are just four unarmed greenskins. Any farmer from the village could kill them with a pitchfork. Are you so proud of yourself?"

"I have to deal with four of them by myself! Is that not enough?" Although Abby was young and could hear the joking tone in the other party's voice, he still couldn't help but get stuck in a rut.

I remembered the other party's advice before entering the cave.

He couldn't help curling his lips and said stubbornly:

"The guy with the double swords just now is only a little better equipped. If he takes over, maybe..."

Chirp——

He was distracted and didn't pay attention to his feet for a while.

When I took a step down, it felt like I stepped into a small puddle of water.

Water droplets splashed onto my cheeks, and I subconsciously reached out to wipe them away with my sleeve.

An extremely strong smell of blood suddenly rushed into the nose.

There was a strange feeling of soft yet hard touch under my feet.

"what?"

Abhi looked down subconsciously.

I saw half of the goblin's broken arm, hanging beside his legs, as if it was sticking out of the mud.

In an instant, he felt a chill rushing from his tailbone to his forehead. His whole body shivered and he kicked his broken limbs away.

And until then.

Against the backdrop of the faint light emitted by the moss between the folds of the stone wall and the flames of the campfire that had not yet been completely extinguished.

Abi finally saw it, at the deepest part of the nest.

There were countless scattered and broken corpses soaked in pus and blood.

The pungent smell of blood so strong that you could almost see the crimson color in the air, the pale bones sticking out from the flesh, the soft and glutinous internal organs emitting heat, the jagged skull that was still open with cloudy eyes and rolled upside down like gravel on the roadside...

His face suddenly turned pale.

Abby only felt an inexplicable nausea rising from his stomach to his throat.

Roll your Adam's apple twice.

"vomit……"

……

……

"vomit……"

A drunkard, his face pale from drinking, was supporting himself on the table with trembling hands.

His body trembled violently as if he had been electrocuted, and tears and snot fell along with the smelly and foul substance that gushed out of his mouth.

The disgusting smell that was originally sealed in the belly sac quickly spread in the air.

"sorry Sorry."

Two adventurers who seemed to be companions and were a little more sober left a few silver and copper coins on the table, and then carried the drunk man out of the tavern, one on each side.

Xia Nan frowned and looked away.

On the wooden table in front of him, there were several empty bowls with only food residue left.

The White Tit is one of the most popular taverns in town, and these drunk adventurers appear almost every night.

He's used to it.

Fortunately, I have already solved today's dinner in advance, otherwise my appetite would be affected.

Now, two days have passed since he returned from the Misty Forest.

The unexpected encounter with the three adventurers in front of the goblin's lair was just a small episode during the mission.

There was no fighting, and even basic communication did not exist.

He just followed the unspoken rules of adventurers, greeted each other, and then left.

There's nothing to recall.

In comparison, what Xia Nan cares more about now is something else.

This was the first time since he traveled through time that he failed to find a suitable task on the task panel.

The number of green rats that used to breed and spread like cockroaches and were everywhere has dropped drastically in just a few months.

To the extent that even the bounty missions issued by the association have become popular.

Often, the adventurers who were just posted on the quest wall one second ago and were waiting for the quest the next second would already be crowding towards the front desk to vie for the quest.

This is also the reason why Xia Nan finally enjoyed a leisurely day off after a long absence from non-stop work.

"It's impossible that I killed them all, right?"

He joked in his mind.

Of course, the probability of such a thing happening, at least considering its current strength, is close to zero.

How could a low-level adventurer like me who hasn't even obtained a professional level destroy the strange creatures that have not yet become extinct even under the siege of the gods?

There must be some other reason that I am not aware of yet.

Sitting at the wine table, leaning back in the chair.

I was just about to find the well-informed tavern owner Chapton to inquire about relevant information.

Suddenly, the sound of several adventurers chatting could be heard at the next table.

"Damn it, I think the owners of these grocery stores in this town are crazy about money. They dare to charge me a few copper coins for a five-foot-long hemp rope."

"The prices of other supplies like sleeping bags have doubled compared to when I purchased them before."

"What do you mean, you think we make money easily, so you just grab it, fuck!"

Hearing the other party say this, Xia Nan was also quite touched.

He took on a high intensity of tasks in the first two months, and purchased various supplies at a very high frequency.

I go to the grocery store almost every few days.

It is precisely because of this that he can clearly feel the soaring prices over time.

But I thought it was just a normal phenomenon in Hegu Town near the end of the year, so I didn't think much about it.

Right now, it seems like there's something wrong inside...?
Seeing that the adventurers at the next table were getting more in-depth with their conversation, he quietly pricked up his ears.

"Hehe, you just came to River Valley Town this year, so you probably don't know that there is a reason why the prices of supplies suddenly increased overall..."

"Elaborate!"

(End of this chapter)