Goblin Heavy Dependence

Chapter 221 Battlefield Gains and the [Tidal Surge Lure]

The light, condensed to its extreme, resembled flowing, ever-changing runes, enveloping the surface of the fist bone.

"boom!"

It is the dull thud produced when bones collide violently through the skin and flesh.

Without any obstruction, the fist, imbued with brilliant light, slammed directly into the back of the beastman's head.

The superhuman physical abilities allowed the powerful punch, driven by gravity, to nearly knock the beastman off his feet.

At the moment when bone and flesh collided, Xia Nan could not see the beastman's expression, and naturally he did not know whether the other party had regained any humanity in the face of life and death.

However, from the corner of his eye, he could see the sudden tension in the back of his neck muscles and the slight trembling on both sides of his cheeks, indicating that the other party must have sensed the deadly aura emanating from his attack.

next second.

Buzz-boom——

The ochre-red force field energy suddenly erupted from the fist that landed on the back of the beastman's head.

The pure, stable, and highly penetrating force field damage shows no mercy to the flesh and blood before it.

The thick, swaying mane was instantly shredded into pieces, and the skin, tougher than tree bark, was like blood-red mud splashing out from both sides of a fist.

"Crench."

This is the terrifying sound that comes from when the skull cracks.

The fist that was originally about to land on the back of the bear-man's head suddenly sank a few inches.

Immediately, the blood that splattered from the edge of the fist became thicker and yellowish-white.

Xia Nan could clearly feel that as the surface of his fist bones changed from hard to soft, the burly body beneath him suddenly twitched.

The immense power that had been stored in the beastman's muscles, now without the guidance of consciousness, surged through his body like an uncontrolled electric current.

His strong and tall body suddenly stiffened.

Like a walking corpse, driven by the last vestiges of instinct before death, he took two more steps forward, then fell face down.

Her head, which was mostly engulfed by the force field energy, was exposed.

At the same time, the thorny vines that had been surging toward Xia Nan like waves of greenery on the ground seemed to have lost their lives in an instant.

It seemed frozen in place like a sculpture, lacking its previous vitality.

Further away, the ferocious beasts surrounding Xia Nan suddenly regained their former innocent look in their eyes, and their savage nature quietly faded away.

Some, intimidated by the ferocity of the battle, fled in panic with their tails between their legs, while others, driven by the thick smell of blood in the air and their hunger, began to tear at each other and fight fiercely.

Her feet landed lightly.

Looking at the beast-human corpse in front of him, which had completely lost its life force and was reverting to human form, Xia Nan felt a sense of relief.

Immediately, the fatigue from the intense battle, along with the sharp pain emanating from all parts of the body, surged from the heart and rushed to the top of the head.

His masterful use of [Gravity Control] and the activation of [Mind-Guiding Vision] at crucial moments further depleted his mental energy.

Just standing on the ground, my vision keeps going black and I feel dizzy.

He sensed something was wrong. Although he had defeated the main enemy, the battle was not over yet, and he still needed to finish the job.

Given his current condition, there's no guarantee he can easily defeat the hungry beasts as he did in his prime.

Having barely survived to the end, he didn't want to be taken advantage of by these beasts.

As his thoughts raced, he reached for his waist with his left hand and a bottle of healing potion appeared in his hand.

He quickly poured half a bottle into his mouth.
-
25 gold.

The sweet and refreshing taste lingered on the tip of the tongue, and the cool liquid that flowed down the throat into the body seemed to be infected by the pumping heart next to it as it flowed into the chest, turning into wisps of warmth that flowed through the whole body with the blood.

The initial fatigue and pain gradually subsided, and a tingling sensation spread through the injured areas of my arms and chest.

Xia Nan suddenly took a deep breath, and his burning body heat condensed into a straight, distinct white wisp of smoke in the cold air.

Before it could completely dissipate, it was swept up by the wolf howls and dissolved into the thick fog, turning into the mane of an illusory wolf head amidst the grass clippings and blood, rushing towards the spot where the long sword had fallen.

……

……

Having recovered some of his strength with the healing potion, Xia Nan quickly traversed the battlefield using the high mobility of [Fang Shou], retrieving the two longswords that had fallen during the battle with Mint.

Then he forced himself to cheer up and drove away the remaining beasts on the field.

With the beastman who drove them mad already dead, this wasn't particularly difficult.

By merely revealing their strength and aggression, and killing a few unfortunate beasts as a deterrent, these cautious predators, who had regained their senses and were surviving in the dangerous forest, all retreated and disappeared into the depths of the night.

"Huh...huh..."

For a moment, the only sound in the empty and silent space was the sound of heavy breathing.

Xia Nan braced himself against the tree trunk with one hand, his body leaning slightly forward, sweat dripping from his chin and soaking the soil around the tree roots.

From the time he followed Cash and the others to this open space until the battle was over, less than half an hour had passed.

However, the physical and mental energy he expended was far greater than that required to sweep through dozens of goblin lairs.

First came the siege from Cash and Veris, then Mint, who went berserk and transformed into a bear-man after her beast transformation, while also having to deal with those annoying thorns and herds of beasts.

He wiped out all three of his teammates, pushing the intensity and pressure of the battle to the limit.

Even with its physical endurance, which reaches a high of "8" points under the influence of Drip, it was somewhat unable to withstand it.

Fortunately, the half-bottle of healing potion worked well, restoring much of his energy and preventing his combat ability from dropping too much.

In retrospect, it was probably because I had hidden myself too well before, and I caught them off guard with [Gravity Control], plus the mental shock effect of [Looking into the Abyss].

Xia Nan defeated the two men in less than two rounds, and it's unknown whether they even had time to use their full strength.

On the contrary, Mint after her beast form was much stronger than he had expected, far surpassing many newly promoted professionals.

It's unclear whether it's a professional combat skill or a racial talent of the beastmen, but the opponent's ability to manipulate thorns, summon wild beasts, and even use a avatar to withstand attacks, combined with his exaggerated physical attributes, makes him exceptionally difficult to deal with.

It happened in the forest, which was the opponent's home turf.

This made Xia Nan feel quite strained during the battle.

Aside from the "Coin of Fortune," they played almost all their other trump cards, and only managed to win with a flash of inspiration at the last moment.

In other words, he reacted quickly on the spot, discarded his weapon, and used his armor to withstand the opponent's claw, which gave him the opportunity to win.

However, looking back now, there were still some oversights in the battle.

Xia Nan raised his left hand and glanced at the dark, smooth arm shield on his forearm and its sharp edges.

In the final moments, with both weapons out of his hands, he chose to use his fist imbued with [Gravity Etching] to deliver the finishing blow.

This was a new way of using combat techniques that I had never tried or even imagined before, thanks to the combat inspiration that burst forth when my attention was highly focused.

Although the result was good, it would actually have been safer to use the Serpent Scale Arm Shield instead of the fist to unleash that final [Gravity Etching].

But at that time, was my posture really suitable for using the air conditioner as a whole position to launch an attack using my arm shield?
Xia Nan reviewed the situation in his mind. But before his brain could even begin to process the information and his thoughts could even deepen, he was forced to stop again.

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of those distracting thoughts.

Although the battle is over, now is not the time for a debriefing and summary.

In the misty forest at night, the smell of blood on the bodies on the field can easily attract dangerous monsters.

He had to hurry up and finish the last bit of work before leaving and finding a safe place to spend the night.

Let's wait until dawn tomorrow to find a way out.

Using his core strength, Xia Nan straightened up, quickly checking his injuries and the extent of damage to his equipment while remaining alert to the surrounding dense forest.

After drinking half a bottle of the medicine, the pain in my chest lessened slightly. Although I still felt a slight stinging sensation when moving, it was completely within my tolerance.

After returning to town and resting for a few days, he should be fully recovered.

The three deep wounds on my right arm from the scratches from the mint have stopped bleeding, but I can feel waves of pain coming from them.

In terms of injuries alone, it's not too bad. The battle is over, and with his physical condition, he'll recover almost completely after a few naps, without even leaving a scar.

The troublesome thing is the "beastification curse" that may have already seeped into the body through the wound.

If you don't want to suddenly grow a furry tail, or drool over raw meat.

He needed to get back to River Valley as soon as possible to see if he could use his points to exchange for a magic scroll containing the "Remove Curse" spell, or spend a fortune to hire a spellcaster with similar abilities to heal him.

He had already searched for purifying potions for related diseases in the alchemist's shop in the association, but had not found any.

That must be quite an expense.

If you're unlucky, one go can wipe out his entire fortune.

Hmm... my plate chainmail armor also shattered; the iron plate on my chest was almost torn apart by Mint's claw.

Fortunately, the other parts are still intact, so maybe we don't need to replace them. We can spend a little money to send them to the blacksmith for a major repair, and they might still be usable.

Suddenly, I realized that my savings of over four hundred gold coins seemed a bit insufficient.

Xia Nan's gaze swept over the corpses on the field.

Hopefully, the profits from this mission will make up for his losses.

……

First, there was Veris, who was stunned by the mental counterattack of "Looking into the Abyss" and was beheaded before she could even make a move.

This tall and slender drow mixed-race woman didn't have any obvious armor. Her rogue profession and exotic aesthetic from the underground meant that she was only wearing a light, tight-fitting, openwork leather outfit.

Although the two short daggers are not magical equipment, they look quite good and are in good condition, so they should fetch a good price at the blacksmith's shop.

Besides some worthless odds and ends, Xia Nan also found 6 gold, 1 silver, and 3 copper items in the pouch, as well as some small medicine jars without any indication of their purpose.

Regarding the former, it's actually quite normal to only have this much money. After all, including himself, very few adventurers would carry all their wealth on them; at most, they would carry a small amount for emergencies during a mission.

As for the latter, Xia Nan had personally witnessed the other party smearing a sticky, oily-like substance from the medicine jar onto the dagger, which should be some kind of poison.

He was unsure of the specific effects and was hesitant to use it.

But perhaps Ms. Edwina of the "Grass Crucible" will buy it; if not, selling it to a grocery store at a low price is also an option.

Unfortunately, the oval-shaped eye-like item in Veris's hand seemed to lose its effectiveness after releasing the dark purple beam that triggered the [Looking into the Abyss] effect, and lay stiffly on the ground.

I don't know if it will still work.

Xia Nan picked it up casually, wrapped it in several layers of gauze, and stuffed it deep into her backpack.

As a legitimate professional, he felt somewhat dissatisfied that he didn't even have a single valuable item that could fetch three-figure gold coins.

Considering that assassins of this type tend to keep important items close to their bodies, and worried that drow elves, who are masters of poison, might leave some disgusting contingency plans on their bodies.

Xia Nan should concentrate and remain vigilant.

From a distance, with his left arm shielding his body and his right hand gripping the hilt of his sword, he used the tip of his sword to pry open the leather jacket on the other person and carefully inspect it.

Got nothing.

As for whether there were any other ulterior motives during the examination...

All I can say is that, although he was under a lot of pressure when he took risks, he developed a few quirks that are hard to explain.

But it wouldn't be so perverse as to have designs on a headless body in front of him, whose wounds are still spurting blood.

Then came Cash, whose head had also been chopped off and who became a corpse.

Using [Gravity Control] and [Mind-Guiding Vision], Xia Nan caused his opponent to lose control while moving at high speed, causing him to crash directly into his own sword blade.

Its head flew high into the air and landed on the ground, while its body flew directly into the depths of the forest due to inertia.

Xia Nan followed the trail for quite a while before finally finding Cash's body next to a sturdy oak tree with cracks in its bark.

The fine scale armor, which was expected to fetch a good price, was twisted beyond recognition by the terrifying impact, resembling a metal can that had been roughly opened, making it impossible to discern its original armor-like appearance.

It has already been reduced to a pile of scrap metal.

As for Cash in the "can," all that's left is a mass of rotten flesh that looks particularly horrifying and abstract.

Fortunately, the fanny pack was still on his body.

Xia Nan found 9 gold, 8 silver, and 2 bronze pieces inside.

better than nothing.

But unexpectedly, Cash's weapon was a plain-looking, smooth-cut, bluish-gray stone spear with ocean-like patterns engraved on its surface.

Under Xia Nan's gaze, its attribute panel, which had far more characters than ordinary weapons, was revealed.

……

【Tidal Surge Lure】

Type: Spear

Level: Common (White)
effect:

When a stone spear is inserted vertically into calm seawater, it will release an infrasonic vibration that attracts all small plankton within a mile radius, with the effect lasting for 6 hours.

Triggering conditions:

Using the tip of a spear, stab a live, healthy whale at a rate of 60 times per minute for 10 minutes without interruption.

Introduction:

Compared to weapons used for killing, it seems more suitable for patient anglers.

Remarks:

"You know, sometimes you do need a few tricks to catch a big fish."

—Bill Bohm, champion of the Black Reef Islands Fishing Tournament and the Beastman (Whaleman)

(End of this chapter)