Chapter 96: Secret

Being accompanied by a high-level professional.

For Xia Nan, the danger level on the outskirts of the Mist Forest was actually not much different from Hegu Town.

It was the same "eat-train-sleep"; compared to the two, it was just that the food was simpler, changing from stewed meat mushroom soup to dried meat and black bread, and the training venue changed from the suburban forest to the Goblin cave.

He even felt that in terms of sleep quality, it was even better at this moment.

After all, being in the uninhabited wilderness, naturally there wouldn't be tavern guests shouting at the top of their lungs, and the "creak" strange noises from the shaking stairs.

And the dangerous monsters that were supposed to be the most worrying, those that were accustomed to hunting at night, were also deterred by the transcendent aura of the Barbarian Fugang and dared not approach.

Xia Nan didn't relax his vigilance too much because of this.

After all, he was just a rookie who had embarked on the adventurer's path for no more than two or three months.

During the mission, some habits that might not be of any use now, but would concern his own safety to a great extent in the future, must be cultivated as early as possible.

For example: night watch and traps.

Regarding the latter, even though the chilling cold permeating the air made even the clumsiest grey rats in the forest consciously stay away under the effect of survival instinct.

He still set up many warning traps around the camp carefully and cautiously.

They hadn't been triggered once since leaving Hegu Town.

But he felt secure in his heart.

Regarding night watch...

Although the Barbarian had never mentioned relevant requirements to Xia Nan, he still took the initiative to divide the time allocation with the other.

Fugang was as silent as ever.

He didn't say he agreed, nor did he object.

It was just that silently, he changed his routine from staying awake all night to closing his eyes to rest in the first half of the night, and then waking up at a fixed time in the middle of the night.

Half a night's time was enough for Xia Nan to recover the physical strength consumed during the day's training.

Today, the situation seemed slightly different.

The waning moon, covered by thick clouds, had just touched the treetops and hadn't climbed to the top of the sky, yet the Barbarian had already woken up amidst the howling cold wind.

He wasn't like the previous few days, honing his obsidian hand-axe with ice crystals and frost.

He just sat quietly by the campfire, staring at the fine chain in his hand.

Fugang naturally noticed the gaze from the other side of the camp.

He also knew that his abnormal performance tonight had aroused the attention of the rookie who was still quite careful.

He didn't mean to explain.

Feeling the cold touch of the metal chain wrapped around his fingers, his fingertips lightly touched and rubbed the pendant on it, and his ice-lake-like eyes were slightly lost.

Frostmoss Highlands, the violent and fierce ice and snow became a natural barrier, isolating the people who had lived in that harsh land for generations from the outside world.

Countless years had passed, and although there were occasional young people who pursued their own paths and traveled far, bringing the changes outside the snowfield back to the tribe.

But the Barbarians of the Frostthroat clan still followed the traditions left by their ancestors.

Preserving the most proud prey of their lives in the form of ornaments or tattoos.

This simple yet sturdy necklace had accompanied him for many years, but he only wore it on his body after he became an adult.

Regarding the concepts of slaughter, prey, and trophies, Fugang's earliest memory could be traced back to when he was six years old.

An "Icefield Field Mouse" that didn't know what it was frightened by and panicked into the hut.

The specific process had long been blurred.

He only clearly remembered that when he stabbed the ice-blade dagger gifted by the tribal warrior into the field mouse's spine.

The mouse eyes that gradually lost their luster during the contraction, and the muscles twitching and convulsing under the fur.

It wasn't any special feeling, nor did it leave any shadow.

Warriors fighting with ice and snow would eventually experience death.

Apart from this, Fugang's most profound memory.

Only remained of that night's fragrant mouse meat soup, and the mouse-skin vest that helped him survive that deep winter.

Then it was twelve years old.

Fugang, who had become the strongest child in the tribe and had begun actual combat training under the guidance of tribal warriors.

On the way home from the training ground, he accidentally encountered a starving snow spider.

On the left side of his chest, near his heart, was a bloody wound.

Even now, many years later, one could still see the scars remaining on the surface of his skin.

And the snow spider chelicera that left the scar on his body was also smashed by him and made into a pendant, which was currently hanging on the outermost side of the iron chain.

Sixteen years old, he followed the hunting party deep into the snowfield, got separated from the main force by accident, and was treated as prey by a Winter Wolf cub that had just been born.

As one of the chromatic dragons with the lowest intelligence and the most "primitive" kind, it even had trouble filling its stomach.

Just driven by hunger, it fought and killed Fugang like a wild beast in the ice and snow.

Bathed in dragon blood, he kept a section of the end of the Winter Wolf's tail bone and made it into a bone pendant on the necklace.

Twenty-two years old, it was a young centipede monster.

The details of the battle had been forgotten, but the Winter Wolf that had fought side-by-side with him at that time and could safely entrust his back to each other.

At this moment, it had been pierced through the chest by bone spurs, still using its soft and warm fur to block the wind and frost for him.

Finally, it was thirty-nine years old.

When Fugang, amidst the howling wind and snow, stood firm against the terrifying howl that could sweep across the ice peaks and trigger a massive avalanche.

And when he chopped the head of the "Giant Evil Yeti" off its neck with that pair of goat-like coiled horns.

He also finally met the final conditions and stepped onto the path of the transcendent.

He didn't, as originally planned, inherit the great power of the North, frost, and nature under the protection of the ancestral spirits, and transfer to 【Ice Crown Warrior】, a class with a clear advancement route and the ability to wantonly release Barbarian anger.

The ruins of his hometown and the hundreds of corpses he personally buried made the shadow of revenge already fill his heart.

At the cost of faith and the soul after death, Fugang exchanged for the power he needed most from the 【God of Slaughter】, "Mara," the "Black-Blooded One."

Advancing to 【Frostbound Oathkeeper】, letting the shackles of the oath bind his heart, and using the wolf spirit under the mourning of ice and snow to search for the traces of his enemies.

And this was precisely the reason he could cross half a continent, chasing all the way from the Frostmoss Highlands in the North to the Mist Forest.

Snapping the neck of that beast, and filling the empty space Fugang had specifically left for it in the center of the necklace with thorns entangled with mycelium.

He would also complete his advanced class transfer under the gaze of the God of Slaughter, taking the final step before "Legend."

Xia Nan sat by the campfire.

The warmth released by the burning dry branches dispelled the last trace of chill in his body.

He was already used to it; after all, he needed the Barbarian's frost to assist in guidance when practicing 【Tooth Hunt】 these past two days.

Even without the fire in front of him, if he found a place to practice for another ten or twenty minutes, the heat in his body would be enough to melt the ice and cold.

The night was deep, but the time was still early for him.

With Xia Nan's current physical fitness, if he lay down now, he would wake up consciously after replenishing his physical strength before dawn, and it wouldn't be convenient to do anything.

So he didn't rush to rest.

Instead, he took out the small box he had found in the Goblin nest during the day from the backpack behind him and savored it.

He grabbed a gold coin from it, held it in his hand, reflected it in the campfire, and Xia Nan squinted and examined it.

The pitch-black pupils reflected the golden coins, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

It had to be said that the Hobgoblin's performance during the day completely broke his stereotypical impression of Goblin-type creatures.

It was almost like another species; it neither had the crazy madness of ordinary Goblins, nor was it as rough and reckless as its burly cousin.

Tactical literacy sufficient for on-site command, and leadership ability that could make the chaotic nature of the evil and low-intelligence green-skins obey commands...

Xia Nan didn't doubt at all that if there really were such a powerful Hobgoblin that ruled and merged a large number of Goblin communities.

It might really be able to pose a threat to nearby human towns.

Of course, on the other hand.

The Hobgoblin's intelligence, far superior to its kind, although making them harder to deal with than ordinary Goblins and even Hobgoblins.

But to some extent, it was also beneficial to adventurers who lived by hunting these monsters.

Knowing how to accumulate, they would store gold coins and useful equipment.

Adventurers who finished cleaning up the nest didn't need to endure the nausea like in the past, searching the Goblins, which were emitting foul smells, one by one to find possible harvests.

They only needed to find the Hobgoblin's treasure trove to easily sweep up the trophies of the entire green-skin community.

Even the environment inside the cave was much cleaner than ordinary Goblin nests.

There was no accumulated feces mixed with mud under the agitation of urine, and it was rare to see rotting bones that had only been half-eaten.

Even the green-skin cubs he had once seen...

His thoughts suddenly paused.

Xia Nan subconsciously frowned, noticing something wrong.

According to the information he had learned in Hegu Town during this period.

The number of Goblins in this world was almost the most numerous of all bottom-tier monsters.

Just like the cockroaches and mosquitoes that could be seen everywhere in grass and floor cracks, they could never be killed clean.

Even if professional adventurers were sent to clean up a certain area.

It might just be clean for a while.

It seemed like they were all killed, not one left.

In reality, after ten or twenty days, a large batch would pop up from somewhere again.

As if they grew out of the ground.

Under these circumstances, combined with the racial characteristic of having no females, if Goblins wanted to maintain such a huge species base, they had to plunder a large number of females from other races.

It was just that,

Xia Nan hadn't cleaned up many Goblin caves during this time, but the alien females he imagined being ravaged by green-skins to breed offspring for them...

Not a single one!

Even juvenile forms of Goblins were rarely seen.

It was as if they were all replicated and produced from the same mold on an assembly line.

Strange, too strange.

Doubts grew like weeds in his heart, and he could no longer suppress them.

He glanced at the Barbarian Fugang, who was rubbing the necklace opposite the campfire.

Seeing that the other had woken up and didn't mean to rest again.

Xia Nan organized his language in his abdomen and couldn't help but ask the other about his doubts.

He had thought that given Fugang's silent personality, even if he knew some inside information, he wouldn't tell him much.

What he didn't expect was that it seemed the mushroom that grew on the Hobgoblin during the day had stimulated some part of his heart.

Facing Xia Nan's question, the Barbarian slowly spoke of a certain secret from ancient times that circulated among professionals.

It was said that "a long time ago," with a millennium as a unit of time.

Goblins, or Goblins.

Were no different from any other creature in this world; they had male and female distinctions and could reproduce normally.

Although their nature was equally evil, and incidents of attacking passing caravans and pedestrians occurred from time to time, it was far from as frequent as it was now.

They were just a common and ordinary bottom-tier monster.

Until that grand battle that covered the entire continent, affected countless kingdoms and races, and involved several major pantheons.

The human "Legends" standing at the top of the biological pyramid were like ordinary adventurers under the claws of a Hobgoblin; their corpses could pile up the most spacious Saint-Melt Square in the Dwarf Underground Kingdom.

Every night, one could see meteors streaking across the night sky—those were gods falling and perishing from above the heavenly kingdom.

【High Chieftain】, 【Lord of the Deep Dark】 "Maglubiyet," as the main god of the Goblin pantheon, was naturally also drawn into this battle.

The specific process of the situation's development had long been buried in the depths of the long river of history.

But one of the most critical turning points had been preserved through countless people's word of mouth.

Legend had it that at a certain point in time, the siege of the enemy gods had pushed the Goblin race to the brink of extinction.

All Goblins on the entire continent had been cleared out, leaving only a small portion lingering on their last breaths under the protection of their gods.

Maglubiyet, who held multiple domains such as "War" and "Rule" and possessed great divine power, also gradually lost his domains in the fierce battle with the gods.

And just as the pantheon collapsed and the Goblin race was about to be completely wiped out.

Maglubiyet suddenly disappeared.

He disappeared completely from the multiverse with the few hundred Goblins left on the continent.

"Ran away?" Xia Nan's face was filled with incomprehension and doubt. "Then where did the green-skins I killed during the day come from?"

To this, Fugang just shook his head.

"When Goblins appeared in the eyes of the world again, the battle had already ended for hundreds of years."

And Maglubiyet, the main god of the Goblins, had also returned to his God Kingdom.

No one knew what had happened in between.

Why the Goblins that returned to the continent suddenly lost the concept of "gender," why Maglubiyet could successfully reclaim his domains and even become more powerful, why the gods above the heavenly kingdom seemed to acquiesce to all of this without any reaction...

The air in the camp became incomparably silent for a time.

Only the "crackle" sound of burning wood remained.

Xia Nan digested the large amount of information that had suddenly flooded into his brain, and he didn't know what to say.

He had just asked casually, not expecting that there was really something to it.

He didn't think much, just silently recorded this knowledge in his mind.

At the moment, he wasn't even a professional; rather than worrying about these high-level matters that he couldn't even touch with his own strength,

it would be better to think about when he could truly get 【Tooth Hunt】 to the entry level.

Shaking his head, Xia Nan looked at the Barbarian Fugang sitting opposite the campfire, who had put on his necklace again.

"So the meaning now is, send me to the nearest town first, and then you go deal with your own affairs?"

"Yeah."

"Back to Hegu Town?"

"Too far."

"Then where to?"

"Kalanfur."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 97 =====