Chapter 88: Shock

The next day, before dawn had even broken.

Xia Nan stood fully armed and brimming with energy at the door of the White Tit Tavern.

—His boosted Constitution meant that even after only a few hours of sleep, his body and mind were fully restored.

The only thing gnawing at him slightly was that, although his weapons and gear had no gaps.

The whole thing had come up so suddenly that there had been no time at all to prepare extra supplies.

It was still the middle of midsummer night, and the shops along the street had long since closed their doors — there was nowhere to go shopping even if he wanted to.

In the end, he made do with the leftover scraps from his previous missions as supplies, and spent some coin buying from the tavern owner "Chaputun" food that was easy to carry and could be stored for a long time, before he could consider his pre-departure preparations complete.

"Tap, tap."

Slow, steady, and crisp footsteps came from behind him.

Xia Nan suddenly felt a cold wind sweep through the air.

His gaze turned.

At the far end of the street, bathed in the rising morning sun on the horizon, where brilliant rosy clouds wove together with soft, gentle dawn light.

A burly figure, wrapped in a cold wind, walked slowly out of the gradually dissolving night.

His towering brow ridge cast a shadow, and his eyes looked like two wisps of wavering, ghostly blue flame.

He glanced at Xia Nan, who had already made his preparations by the roadside.

Gave an almost imperceptible slight nod.

Said nothing, just walked in silence toward the exit of the town.

Xia Nan tightened the heavy pack on his back and hurried to catch up.

Yet his expression showed a trace of oddity.

Normally, as an Adventurer who considered himself fairly thorough, before heading out on a mission he would prepare supplies equal to two to three times the expected journey length.

Now, although the Barbarian "Fugang" had not disclosed the specific number of days, considering that the man was only passing through River Valley Town for a brief rest, even if he was bringing Xia Nan along to learn combat arts, he probably wouldn't linger too long.

Without affecting his mobility, Xia Nan had still prepared as best he could supplies sufficient for seven days of wilderness survival.

If he rationed carefully, he could even stretch it to over ten days.

By comparison, Fugang looked unusually light and unencumbered.

Forget a heavy burlap bundle like the one on his own back — this Barbarian had nothing on him but a few small beast-hide waist pouches, which could barely be called storage items.

He didn't know whether the man possessed some kind of magic storage item, or if that was simply his habit.

Considering the man's Barbarian racial identity, and the impression he had left on Xia Nan the night before.

He leaned toward the latter.

……

The two of them, one ahead and one behind, walked in silence through the streets of River Valley Town.

The sky grew brighter and brighter, and the buildings on either side of the road gradually thinned out.

The familiar streetscape gave Xia Nan a sense of judgment.

Their destination should be Wuwu Forest.

Taking advantage of the fact that they had not yet left Human settlements, and didn't need to be as fully focused as they would in the forest, alert for dangers around them.

His thoughts drifted slightly.

Come to think of it, when it came to his choice of combat arts last night, there were still quite a few oversights.

Many days ago, during a mission, Wood had mentioned to him.

The acquisition of a Professional Level was not simply a matter of mastering three combat arts and raising the proficiency of one of them to "Mastered" (lv5).

The three combat arts had to belong to the same class of profession in order to complete the advancement.

Otherwise, it was a failure.

Or, with an almost impossibly slim probability, one could take up some obscure, niche profession.

He had no idea right now which profession's category his lv5 【Whirling Slash】 fell under.

If he rashly chose combat arts from another advancement direction.

That would be a complete waste of this precious opportunity.

Perhaps… he should find a chance to ask?

Musing over this in his heart.

The Barbarian "Fugang" ahead of him, however, seemed to sense what was on his mind.

Still in that heavily accented, muffled voice:

"Haian tells me you've already mastered one combat art."

His heart stirred, and Xia Nan quickly picked up the thread.

"Yes, but I don't know its specific category. I've only heard them say it might come from 【Warrior】 or 【Paladin】."

Then, silence.

The Barbarian showed no intention of replying at all, just kept walking.

The conversation between the two came to an abrupt halt.

Xia Nan opened his mouth soundlessly.

He stared at the sturdy figure ahead of him, draped in a Wolf Skin Cloak, feeling a little sullen.

……

……

Wuwu Forest,

For Xia Nan, who had already completed two missions within it, was not unfamiliar.

But this trip, following behind the Barbarian, was an unforgettable experience — one that even carried a hint of shock.

It was as if the final destination had already been decided before they even entered the forest.

Barbarian Fugang, adhering to the principle of "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line," brought Xia Nan along, charging forward almost recklessly at great speed.

The annoying thorns that used to require enormous effort to barely hack through on the road,

didn't even need that small obsidian axe hanging at his waist.

With just a slam of his body, they were crushed mercilessly by the Barbarian, like waves on the shore battering a reef.

Nor did he care about the dangers that might be hidden in the forest.

Fugang made no attempt to conceal the noise of his advance, moving even faster than he had back in town.

Though it only looked like an ordinary brisk walk, Xia Nan had to jog just to keep up.

And under such circumstances, for an entire morning, let alone any monsters —

not even a single one of those disgusting, tenacious venomous snakes and scorpions hiding in the bushes could be seen.

The Barbarian's aura of danger, comparable to that of an apex predator at the top of the food chain, was a natural "insect repellent" for those wild animals with extremely keen senses.

Like a bright lamp radiating light in the dark night, the mere glimpse of a wolf's body revealed beneath that glow was enough to drive away those puny creatures too weak to even be called prey.

On the outskirts of Wuwu Forest, with a high-rank professional like Fugang, in some sense the danger level might not even match that of River Valley Town.

After all, in the latter, if you just found a tavern where Adventurers gathered and sat down, you might still run into a few drunk professionals throwing a drunken fit.

Xia Nan followed closely in the other's footsteps, taking in this forbidden ground — which had buried countless low-level Adventurers — from a brand-new perspective he had never had before.

Suddenly, for some unknown reason —

the aura emanating from the Barbarian before him abruptly dropped.

Along with it, his originally overwhelming presence diminished considerably.

Puzzled in his heart, but since the other party offered no explanation, he did not ask, simply continuing to follow.

Roughly another twenty minutes passed.

As Fugang's pace gradually slowed, a cave situated on a small hillside within the forest came into Xia Nan's view.

The wisps of stench lingering in the air, and the crude yet oddly familiar style of the earthen cave —

let him recognize the owner of this nest at a single glance.

"Goblins?"

(End of this chapter)