Chapter 300: Enjoyment and Wonderful Taste

Mist Forest core area.

Staring at the deep cave emitting a faint stench in front of him, Xia Nan's expression was calm, and no ripples could be seen on his face.

The journey was smooth.

Compared to when he had just left Hegu Town, Xia Nan, who had arrived at the mission location, didn't have much change on his body.

Only the surface of the plate-chain composite armor on his upper body remained with some bloodstains, and his trousers and leather boots carried some grass clippings and mud spots, hinting at his encounters along the way.

The whole person could be said to be in a full state.

Of course, it was impossible to say that he hadn't encountered a single battle.

After all, he didn't have any special abilities like stealth or hiding his own aura; setting off from Hegu Town, crossing the entire outer periphery of the forest, and arriving at this core area.

There were quite a few low-level magic beasts or wild beasts like Goblins, Jungle Wolf packs, and Giant Badgers encountered.

Basically, they couldn't pose much threat to him.

Acting alone, for Xia Nan, who possessed an elite template and whose challenge rating was even higher than his professional level, those with strong individual strength could be easily beheaded just by relying on physical fitness, plus a 【Spinning Slash】;

enemies of the group type performed even worse under the impact of 【Tooth Hunting】 with fear effects; often, when the wolf howl sounded, the battle had already entered a countdown.

Coupled with Xia Nan's keen perception ability, which allowed him to discover and avoid dangerous terrain and the territories of powerful magic beasts in advance, his journey could be said to be very smooth, basically without encountering any trouble.

Just occasionally passing by a few Goblin lairs unintentionally, he couldn't help but go down to wander around, delaying a little time, but it didn't matter.

Xia Nan arrived at the destination marked by the mission earlier than the estimated time.

It was also a Goblin lair, but the commission location in front of him was obviously much easier to recognize than those he had encountered on the road before.

Just from the perspective of the entrance.

According to his Goblin clearing experience, which could be considered rich even among bottom-tier adventurers who fought Goblins all year round.

Lairs built and excavated autonomously by ordinary small Goblin communities often rely on natural terrain, perhaps a hidden cave, a depression covered by shrubs, or an abandoned wild beast lair.

Many times, they have the consciousness of concealment, deliberately placing withered branches and fallen leaves at the entrance, or pushing huge fallen tree trunks to the vicinity.

It is incomparably simple, but it is surprisingly effective in the dense forest, producing a confusing effect on many dangerous wild beasts with low intelligence.

But now, the layout of this cave entrance in front of him could even be called "arrogant."

It was a huge stone shed cave that rose from the ground and was pieced together by rocks and clay.

There was no exquisiteness at all; it was just roughly sticking stones of different sizes and shapes together with clay.

But at the same time, those blood-stained leather armor from dead adventurers, torn flags, and simple totems made of branches and bones hanging on the upper edge of the entrance added a few points of wild and rugged beauty to the whole.

There was no concealment at all, and even the surrounding oak trees were cut down, and the tree roots were dug out.

Making the area around the cave form a large clearing that appeared exceptionally abrupt in the dense forest.

And the cave entrance, like a throne built of stones and trophies, sat in the center of this clearing.

Just this "arrogant" aura that did not hide and was not afraid of being discovered by other creatures in the forest was enough to prove the powerful influence of this Goblin lair, or the Goblin community that had excavated and built this lair.

"Is this the so-called 'super-giant Goblin community' that needs a high-level adventurer squad to clear?"

Xia Nan said to himself in his heart, his gaze carefully examining the cave entrance in front.

Speaking of which, he had asked Moli about the detailed situation of the mission based on the commission information before going on the mission.

It is said that the destruction of the original owner of the cave, that large Goblin community, was during the hunting day when he was promoted to a professional.

There were rumors that even that level of high-level team encountered casualties when facing the siege of Goblins, and finally cleared it with great difficulty.

It is hard to imagine exactly how many Goblins were needed to pose a substantial threat to high-level professionals.

Or was it that there were higher-level Goblin mutation individuals than magic beasts like Hobgoblins?

Shaking his head, Xia Nan stopped thinking about it.

Anyway, it had been completely wiped out, and it had nothing to do with him.

What he needed to face was just a Goblin tribe that had occupied the nest like a cuckoo and temporarily occupied this cave.

Being a little careful and paying more attention to vigilance, there shouldn't be any danger.

Finally, he checked the surroundings again, confirming that there were no other ambushes or visible hidden exits.

Then he compared the size of the cave passage, confirming that there was enough space to perform.

Only then did he pull out his two-handed longsword, restrain his aura, move his steps, and walk toward the cave entrance.

This Goblin lair located in the core area of the Mist Forest had an extremely long passage behind the entrance, and it was exceptionally spacious, capable of accommodating a large number of Goblins coming and going.

This was something Xia Nan had never encountered before.

And he arranged some simple defensive traps on the ground and on both sides of the walls, and even had Goblin scouts on guard at key passes.

This was still considered normal; it belonged to the normal operation of magic beasts with higher intelligence like Hobgoblins, and he had seen quite a few in the past year or so.

Handling it was also handy.

It wouldn't cause any extra movement at all; he cut the rope at the mechanism of the trap before it was triggered, and cut off the head of the guard Goblin before it opened its mouth to make a hiss, simple and neat.

Speaking of which, cases like this "cuckoo occupying the nest," where new Goblins occupy the cave left by previous Goblins, are not rare, and can even be said to be everywhere.

Xia Nan also had doubts when he first discovered this situation.

Why did the association never encourage or issue missions like letting adventurers completely destroy the Goblin lairs they cleared to eliminate future troubles.

Even if it was just collapsing the entrance, it could obviously significantly reduce the possibility of other Goblins discovering this empty lair.

At first, he only thought it was the association deliberately ignoring it to reduce the cost of mission rewards.

Later, as Xia Nan went deeper into this line of work and communicated more with adventurers in the tavern, he slowly understood the truth.

For these cleared Goblin lairs, the Adventurer Association did not ignore them, but deliberately preserved them.

The reason was also very simple.

To describe it in terms of games from Xia Nan's previous life, these lairs are like "monster spawners" that refresh Goblins regularly for the association and adventurers.

After all, this unique breeding method of creatures that seem to grow out of the ground is more troublesome than bugs like cockroaches; kill one batch, and another batch comes, never-ending.

In this situation, for those Goblin lairs after clearing, if they were all destroyed.

Then the Goblins that newly grew nearby would form small groups and fight on their own in a very scattered way.

Making those large Goblin communities that should have gathered due to the lair split into dozens of scattered groups. ===== CHAPTER 301 =====