I'm not a Witcher anymore.

Valeria took out stamina potions and medium-strength healing potions from her pouch and handed them to the old hunter and the two villagers, asking them to give them to the five girls.

Ravenna was able to stand on her own by this time, but her head and shoulders still felt stuffy, and she felt a little dizzy and her complexion was not good.

Hill quickly went over and took her arm.

"Don't move around, sit down first, close your eyes and calm down."

Ravenna wrinkled her nose, seemingly wanting to say she was alright, but before she could speak, Hill added:

Don't force yourself to be strong.

Only then did she obediently sit down against the wall, leaning on Hill's shoulder, and stop arguing.

Sieg jumped down from the roof, his longbow turning into dust in his palm before being retrieved back into his Book of Adventure.

After landing, he glanced in the direction of the outer village exit, and then turned to Valeria.

"A few goblins escaped, and they'll come back sooner or later once we leave. We need to burn this stronghold down before we go down the mountain."

Valeria nodded slightly.

"That's what I think too."

She then called the old hunter over and asked him to check the wind direction. She also had the two villagers walk around the side of the forest to see which areas were most likely to catch fire.

Seeing that Valeria had made all the arrangements, Sieg didn't say anything more and returned to the depths of the main castle with his steel sword.

The stench of blood in the inner hall was even stronger than before. Corpses lay scattered on the floor, and blood stained the floor and corners of the walls in a mess.

Zieg drew his herb-gathering knife from his waist and removed the left ears and usable materials from the guards one by one.

Then he stood before the headless corpse of the big goblin.

The enormous corpse lay across the center of the hall, blood still gushing from its severed neck, its shoulders and back resembling a section of fleshy wall that hadn't quite collapsed.

Valeria's sword pierced extremely deep into her left shoulder, almost crushing the bones and tendons on that side.

Zig squatted down and felt around along the area below the broken neck where it connected to the spine, locating the most intact section of the spinal cord.

He took out the collection tube, inserted it at an angle, and with a steady pull, a wisp of dark red and viscous liquid slowly rose up.

The liquid was dark in color and so thick that it hardly flowed. When it clung to the bottle wall, it had an almost heavy, sticky feel.

The Book of Adventure responded swiftly.

"Enhanced Spinal Fluid: The essence of a monster's life instincts"

"Derived from the spinal essence of a goblin hero about to break through boundaries, it has a thick texture and contains extremely high activity."

"The purity of this sample has reached the standard for medicinal use, and it can replace the core material required for concocting the magic potion 'Maripo Forest'—Giant Ghoul Bone Marrow."

Zieg looked at the few lines of text, gently pressed his fingertip on the bottle, and a look of understanding flashed in his eyes.

No wonder this thing can command so many minions; it turns out this goblin is about to mutate.

He glanced at the milestone as well.

Unfortunately, the Book of Adventures doesn't accept this explanation.

Although this goblin had approached that level, it was still half a step short and was not included in the statistics.

Zig refocused his attention and continued searching the inner hall.

Not long after, he discovered an inner room on one side.

There were many broken wooden boxes and rotten planks piled up outside the door, as if they had been deliberately blocked there.

Zig did not rush forward. He first checked the bottom of the wooden box and the surrounding ground to make sure there were no traps, and then cleared away the pile of debris at the door.

Then, he took a small round shield from the Book of Adventure, put it on his arm, and gripped his steel sword in his other hand.

The next moment, he kicked the door open.

The door crashed into the room with a loud thud.

Just as the door opened, two arrows shot towards them.

Zieg was prepared. He raised his small round shield, and the arrow immediately struck the shield, making two sharp, crisp sounds.

Taking advantage of the opening, he flicked his wrist, and the steel sword flew out of his hand, slashing straight into the head of the goblin cub on the left.

The little thing didn't even make a sound before it leaned back and fell over.

The other cub was about to draw its bow and shoot a second arrow when Sieg rushed in, grabbed its head, and slammed it against the wall.

After a muffled thud, the small, thin body went limp.

Zig turned his head and glanced around the room.

The room was small, and a dozen or so goblin cubs of varying sizes were huddled in a corner.

They huddled together, and when they saw that the two larger cubs holding short bows had died in the blink of an eye, they all shrank into the corner and let out a series of sharp and chaotic low cries.

Zieg pulled the steel sword from the corpse and walked over with it.

In a short while, only the sound of blood dripping onto the floor remained in the room.

After there was no further movement, Zig began to search for the actual items piled up in the inner room.

This is clearly the hoarding place where these goblins have plundered over the years.

The quantity was considerable, and the weight was substantial; it was by no means stingy.

A small bag of gold coins, more than twenty silver coins, and a handful of copper coins were stuffed into several leather bags and earthenware jars.

There were also two or three silver cups, silver chains, rings, and silver and gold pieces that had been smashed but could still be melted down and sold.

The wooden crates against the wall contained several still-usable short bows, bundles of arrows, a dozen or so short knives and hunting knives of varying lengths, four or five iron spearheads, and a small round shield with an iron rim.

In addition, several pieces of leather armor that could be repaired and resold, rolls of animal hides, bandages, herbs, dry rations, and water sacs were found by the wall and at the bottom of the wooden crates.

Zieg included all the valuable and usable items in his Book of Adventures.

When he returned to the front hall, the old hunter had already walked around outside, even checking the windy spots and the collapsed walls near the woods.

He stood by the door, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"It can burn. The wind is blowing into the village, not up the mountain behind it. As long as it's kept under control, the fire won't spread into the forest."

After hearing this, Valeria immediately made a decision.

"Then let's get started."

She assigned the old hunter and two villagers to clear away the dead branches, rotten grass, and broken wood around the edge of the forest, and then to draw water from the reservoir to thoroughly soak the outermost ground and the remaining wall, thus clearing a barrier.

Lucy and Hill, along with the five girls and the still somewhat dizzy Ravenna, retreated to a spot where the fireworks couldn't reach them immediately, lest the fire start too quickly and trap them inside.

The group quickly sprang into action.

The old hunter led the two villagers to the edge of the village, dragging away all the twigs and scraps that could be used to start a fire.

The water in the reservoir was quickly brought up bucket after bucket and poured down along the line closest to the forest, soaking the dry soil, the broken walls, and several half-rotten wooden stakes until they turned black and wet.

Lucy helped the girls, whose legs were weak, back out, while Hill watched Ravenna from the side, not letting her push herself any further.

Valeria and Sieg went off separately to light the fires.

They didn't just randomly burn places; they specifically targeted areas where goblins were most likely to regroup and take over.

The relatively intact wooden frame in the main fortress, the shacks piled with filth in the outer village, the storage rooms, the half-collapsed wooden fences, and a few dilapidated houses that could barely keep out the wind and rain were all set on fire.

The fire first spread along the dry grass and rotten wood, then leaped up the beams and pillars, and in the blink of an eye, it spread throughout the village.

The first sound to come from the main castle was the muffled cracking of wood.

Immediately afterwards, fires broke out in the shacks in the outer village.

The red light pierced through the collapsed walls and broken windows, burning brighter and brighter, illuminating the mud, corpses, and scattered wooden stakes on the ground.

The group stood outside the fortified village, watching the wind and the outer edge of the fire for a while. They confirmed that the fire was only spreading into the village, burning along the already lit wooden structures. The outermost edge, closest to the forest, was always blocked by the firebreak and the wet ground, showing no sign of spreading into the mountains.

Only after realizing this did Valeria finally nod.

"Walk."

Then everyone descended the mountain.