Goblin Heavy Dependence

Chapter 365 0.0017%
The sudden change caught everyone off guard.

Fortunately, Afu and Horak had enough control over the caravan, and with Xia Nan and the Blackwood team of three professionals in charge, the team, although somewhat agitated at the beginning, ultimately did not cause any major trouble.

Not daring to waste any time, they quickly discussed the matter for a few minutes in the hotel and formulated a rough plan before setting off.

With limited manpower, although the convoy already had enough guards, only Xia Nan and two others truly possessed professional-level combat capabilities.

Given the uncertainty of the external environment, it is impossible for them to disperse to different parts of the team and actively weaken their combat power.

They then adopted the standard three-person adventurer team formation, with the dwarf Soldin, a shield warrior with excellent defensive capabilities, holding up his shield at the forefront, while Shanan and Margaret were two steps behind, standing side by side.

The overall formation is arranged in a triangle.

Fortunately, there were no mages or archers in the team who needed special protection. All three were melee classes with a certain degree of leeway, so the formation could be relatively free and there was not much to worry about.

As for the other members of the convoy, after detailed discussion, for safety reasons, they decided to stay in the hotel and wait for further instructions.

Otherwise, if dozens of people act together, not only will the commotion be too great, but if they encounter any danger, Xia Nan and his group will also have difficulty protecting them completely.

If the enemy numbers are slightly larger and they are more difficult to deal with, the team will likely suffer heavy casualties.

Therefore, it was decided that Xia Nan and the Blackwood team would first go out to check the situation in the town, and then return to the hotel to discuss any important discoveries with the others.

As for the original members of the caravan, they used this time to prepare wagons and supplies as quickly as possible, while also reinforcing the doors and windows of the inn to guard against possible enemy attacks.

"Huchi..."

A biting, cold wind howled past.

The air, already carrying a hint of coolness, is now even more chilly against the backdrop of the exceptionally empty streets.

Horse-drawn carriages, vendors, and crowds... the once bustling main street of the town was now deserted, not even a stray dog ​​in sight.

Empty.

Looking around, apart from Xia Nan and his two companions, there wasn't a single living creature to be seen.

Margaret glanced up at the pink light screen in the sky, then turned and exchanged a silent look with the black-haired youth beside her.

With a slight nod, Soldin was already at the forefront, walking towards a house-like building on the side of the street.

It must be a wealthy family. The prime location is one factor, but the exceptionally clean and refined appearance of the three-story building is another.

In the mini garden in front of the gate, there are even a few clusters of unidentified flowers swaying in the wind.

“Knock, knock, knock.”

Margaret held a sword in her right hand in a defensive stance, while her left palm faced inward with her knuckles bent, and she gently knocked on the door.

Beside him, facing the doorway, Soldin held a shield in both hands, his copper-coin-sized eyes wide open, unconsciously holding his breath.

Standing behind the two, Xia Nan used his keen senses to alert his teammates to potential dangers around them. He could even see the dwarf's strong muscles on his shoulders and back, which made his shirt bulge out of his armor.

The knocking echoed softly in the deathly silence, quickly fading into the cold wind.

no respond.

Margaret raised her wrist again, intending to tap it one more time.

But before it could fall, it froze in mid-air.

It seems they felt there was no need to test the waters any further.

She turned around with her sword in hand, took a few steps back, and cleared the space to the side of the door.

Having already communicated with the other party, there was no need to say more now; Xia Nan clearly understood what the female swordsman wanted to express.

He then stepped forward, letting Margaret stand guard for him, while he stood in front of the door.

What lies before us is nothing more than an ordinary house. For adventurers in this world, there are countless ways to enter, from the outside to the inside.

Those who possess the skills related to the thief profession don't need any special tools; they can easily unlock doors with just a wire. For barbarians, who are hot-tempered and don't like to waste time and energy on such delicate work, simply brute force the door open is also an option.

Xia Nan falls somewhere in between.

He could certainly force his way in, but that would be too noisy. [Gravity Control] might be able to open the door silently in a more subtle way than picking the lock, but he doesn't understand the internal structure of the locks in this world, and his combat skill proficiency level is insufficient to perform such micro-manipulation.

Therefore, it can only be relatively simple, combining strength with skill.

With his left hand, he held a snake-scale arm shield to protect his front, while with his right hand, he drew a short dagger from his waist.

Swah——

A sharp, cold glint flashed through the air, and the next second the dagger was already deep inside the door crack.

Move it gently, carefully feel the resistance of the blade, and find the location of the bolt mechanism.

"Click."

Unlike the crisp sound of a dagger rubbing together, Xia Nan gripped the dagger hilt with one hand, exerted force, and pressed down.

Randomly, accompanied by a clearer sound, the resistance at the tip of the blade suddenly eased.

Knowing that the door lock had been opened, Xia Nan gave a signal with his eyes to the dwarf standing in front of the main entrance.

After receiving the prepared reply, he suddenly leaned forward, using his shoulders to push against the wooden door and then pushed off with his feet to pull the dagger out of the crack in the door.

In the blink of an eye, he had retreated behind the two members of the Blackwood Squad without his main weapon in hand.

At the same time, Soldin rushed into the room after Xia Nan pushed open the door. A few metallic glints could be seen on his skin, indicating that he was prepared for an enemy ambush.

However... the three's overly cautious behavior seemed to have been a waste of effort.

There were indeed people in the room.

They even sat at the dining table directly opposite the door.

However, he himself did not react at all when he saw the crowd barging into the room.

It must be the male owner of the house, who had just returned home from work and was having dinner alone. His hair was neatly combed, and he hadn't had time to change out of his dusty linen work clothes.

From the outside, his body looks no different from that of an ordinary person.

Only his eyes had lost their original luster.

He was like a walking corpse, staring blankly into the void ahead.

The group cautiously approached.

"Hey, can you still talk?"

Soldin, holding up his sturdy round shield that could withstand attacks from armored monsters, asked cautiously.

no response.

He then gently tapped the other person's shoulder with the hammer in his hand.

Still no response.

"What's going on?" Margaret frowned. "Could the situation in Girdletown be some kind of devilish conspiracy? This person gives me the feeling that he's just a body without a soul."

Xia Nan stared intently at the man in front of her, then suddenly seemed to realize something and recalled the hotel owner's corpse from earlier.

A flash of inspiration suddenly occurred to me.

"Take off his shirt."

He spoke to his two teammates beside him. Upon hearing this, Margaret seemed to realize something as well, and with a flick of her longsword, a soft whistling sound echoed through the room.

The man's shirt fell down in two as if it were a tattered rag, revealing a pink patch on his chest.

"really."

Xia Nan's gaze sharpened.

Just like the hotel owner before him, a palm-sized pastel gemstone was deeply embedded in the center of the man's chest.

You can see faint pink energy flowing under the skin, spreading throughout the body like blood, centered on the gemstone.

But for some reason, unlike the hotel owner, the man did not have the same normal mobility, and even his consciousness seemed to have completely dissipated.

As he pondered, the silver ring on his right ring finger, the [Dream Corridor], trembled slightly, causing Xia Nan's heart to stir.

"Keep an eye on things for me."

He gave a reminder to the two members of the Kuroki squad beside him, then stepped forward, keeping a wary eye on them, and gently touched the pink gem on their chest with his right hand.

The next second, a familiar mechanical voice rang in my mind.

"Ding!"

"Energy-generating material detected, [Dream Corridor] is automatically replenishing..."

"Charging successful!"

"[Remaining Energy]: 2.0004% → 2.0009%"

Five parts per million?

Without showing any emotion on his face, Xia Nan thought to himself.

There were more than the pink gemstone the size of a fingernail in Horac's hand.

but……

Before he could think any further, the man who had been like a walking corpse, devoid of his soul, suddenly trembled after Xia Nan absorbed his energy.

Her eyes regained focus, but she shrank back instantly as if she were having a panic attack.

It made an incomprehensible "hoarse" sound from its throat, crossed its arms over its chest, bent its knees and raised them, curled up on the ground, and its nails dug deep into its arm skin as if trying to meld itself into its body.

Without asking Xia Nan how to free the man from the gem's control, the dwarf Soldin, wary and holding a round shield behind Xia Nan and Margaret, whispered a demand to the trembling man on the ground:
"Hey, can you hear me?"

"What happened here? What happened to you?"

Although Xia Nan helped the man out of his dazed and listless state, the man did not seem to regain his senses; instead, he became like a hysterical madman.

Faced with the dwarf's questioning, he could only mutter, "I don't know... I don't know..." and could not say anything more.

The group then checked the residents in the nearby houses and found that they behaved exactly like the men. Even though they seemed to have lost the alluring effect of the pink gemstones, they all seemed to be suffering from some kind of aftereffect and were completely unable to communicate with others.

It's not really appropriate to just leave them where they are.

After discussing it, Xia Nan and his group tied up the civilians he had awakened with the strongest hemp ropes and sent them to the Cashmere Rusty Nail Inn. They entrusted them to the care of the caravan members, hoping that some of them would regain their senses as soon as possible so that they would know what had happened in Goat Horn Town.

Leaving the hotel once again, the three of them headed towards the pink light shield that enveloped them above.

Speaking of which, after helping several civilians escape the control of the gems, his remaining energy in [Dream Corridor] has reached 2.0017%.

It has accumulated 1.7 ten-thousandths of its energy.

It doesn't look like a lot.

However, considering the population of two to three thousand in Girth Town, if each person could provide him with 0.0003% to 0.0005% of his energy, the total energy could reach up to 1.5%.

It's worth noting that the dream that allowed [Fang Hunt] to be directly upgraded to level 5 (the maximum level) only consumed 3% of the energy, resulting in a nearly 50-point increase in proficiency.

If he can collect 1.5%, plus the 2% energy that [Dream Corridor] originally came from the Ashenvale Secret Realm, it will be more than enough for him to open the dream again and upgrade another level 4 combat skill to the maximum level.

This temptation... I have to admit, is quite alluring.

But as Xia Nan walked along the road, she thought about it again.

Considering the time spent searching house to house and the time required on the way, even with the highest efficiency, absorbing a gem from one person every forty seconds on average is already the limit.

If there are three thousand people in the town, that's a total of 120,000 seconds, two thousand minutes, or more than thirty hours.

Given the current situation in the town, even if he worked day and night, would he really have the leeway to forcefully search for him for two days and one night?
The answer is undoubtedly no.

The more important thing now is to find a way out of Gieshorn and to find out the truth about what's happening in the town.

Later, if he truly gains the ability to freely enter and exit the town's protective barrier, and clearly judges that nothing in the town poses a threat to him, then it won't be too late to come in and replenish his energy.

While they were pondering, the three of them had already followed the empty streets to the outskirts of the town.

The orange grove, which I had visited during the day, was also enveloped in a pink energy shield, through which I could see the flat wilderness on the other side.

"Bang!"

The prism, gleaming with metallic luster, slammed heavily onto the surface of the light shield, and the recoil from the handle made Soldin's entire right arm tremble.

He used seventy percent of his strength to bring down that hammer blow.

But the light screen in front of them remained completely still, standing silently like a wall in front of them.

Chi la——

It is from Margaret, and she has trained it to the "Mastery" level, fully charged with the power of the [Charged Slash].

The effect looks much better than with dwarfs.

However, when that arc-shaped slash struck the surface of the light shield, it only stirred up a slight ripple-like energy fluctuation, which quickly dissipated into nothingness.

Knowing in his heart that simple physical attacks would be no match for the barrier before him, he realized that simple physical attacks would be insufficient to break through the barrier.

After much deliberation, Xia Nan finally decided to use up one layer of energy from [Gravity Etching] here for testing.

"Boom boom!"

Ochre-red energy, like fireworks, burst suddenly from the surface of the [Emberfall] longsword as it slashed swiftly like an arc of the moon.

[Spinning Slash] + [Gravity Etching]

The force field energy clashed violently with the pastel light.

Facing flesh and iron armor, the ochre-red energy, which had always been invincible, now seemed to have met an evenly matched opponent.

After a brief stalemate, it too vanished into thin air.

Xia Nan could sense that if he could release more force field energy and with higher quality, he might actually be able to temporarily create a gap in the surface of the light shield.

But right now, facing the pink energy shield that envelops the entire town, his remaining two [Gravity Etching] techniques are clearly insufficient to meet this requirement.

The plan failed.

For them, leaving the town seemed to be the only remaining option.

Without prior arrangement, the three of them turned around at the same time, their gazes fixed on the depths of Giethoorn.

There, a massive beam of light, like a pillar connecting heaven and earth, recklessly radiated dazzling brilliance.

(End of this chapter)