Chapter 134: The Wise Goblin

After his Bloodline Awakening, Xia Duo's physique was far beyond what an ordinary person could reach. Through this bout of fighting and chasing, Xia Duo felt almost no strain; instead, it was the earlier inspection of the Magic Net's anomalies in the olive grove that had made his brain feel somewhat swollen.

Following the sound, Xia Duo found another soldier who was chasing a Goblin. Just as the soldier was about to raise his sword to hack, Xia Duo hurriedly warned, "Don't kill it!"

The soldier's hand paused, and his one-handed sword grazed past the Goblin's head, slicing off half an ear. The Goblin collapsed onto the ground in terror; if the tiger-like roar from earlier had only been a stimulation without actual threat, then the sword now held to its neck was the most direct threat of all.

"Soldier, what is your name?"

"My lord, my name is Lai Si."

"Very good, Lai Si. You are to take this Goblin back now, watch it well, and don't let it die."

"Yes, my lord!"

The display of force and Magic ensured that Xia Duo's orders were well executed. After giving further instructions, Xia Duo once again sped off in the direction of the others.

In the end, out of the ten people in Wuke's squad, including Lai Si, only 3 had managed to capture a Goblin. The others had either lacked the stamina to catch up or had simply killed them during the chase.

After the squad gathered, Wuke looked at Xia Duo with an embarrassed expression. He had previously boasted that his men were all elite soldiers, yet now they couldn't even catch a few Goblins. "Mage Xia Duo, what is the use of catching these Goblins? If it's not enough, we can come back again tomorrow."

"We'll use these four for now. You leave Lai Si and Huo Li with me, then take the others to clear out the Goblins that were Stunned behind us. I am very worried about whether those villagers can actually handle it!"

"Alright, I'm heading over then."

……

Huo Li was the soldier who had captured a Goblin besides Wuke and Lai Si, and he had caught two by himself, forming a sharp contrast with the others.

At this moment, the two of them were left behind by Xia Duo to guard the Goblins. They were very puzzled by Xia Duo's demand to capture these Goblins. What was there to catch about these Goblins? They were dirty, smelly, low-level creatures, even inferior to wild beasts.

But they were also very curious about what use Xia Duo had for these Goblins. An ordinary person doing this might just be bored, but with a Mage doing it, they felt there must be something inside that they did not know.

Seeing that Xia Duo was still carefully observing these Goblins, Lai Si grew a bit restless. "My lord, how do you intend to deal with these four Goblins?"

"Don't be in a rush, let me look a bit more."

These few Goblins seemed to indeed possess quite high Wisdom. Now that they had fallen into Xia Duo's hands, besides shivering, their little eyes were darting around.

Seeming to realize that Xia Duo was the one who truly decided their fate, when these few Goblins looked at Xia Duo, besides fear, there was also a bit of yearning.

"Heh, truly Wisdom-bearing creatures, yet they have fallen to the level of near-beasts."

Xia Duo drew his one-handed sword and backhanded it into the ground in front of him. This action made the four Goblins jump violently and huddle into a ball. Xia Duo smiled and said:

"I think you should be able to understand the human language. I will count to three; those who don't nod will be killed directly!"

After speaking, Xia Duo began to count, "1——, 2——, 3!"

Just as he finished counting to 3, Xia Duo thrust his sword and pierced the last Goblin that had nodded. Moreover, he could tell that among these few Goblins, only one could understand human speech, while the others were just imitating that one.

Xia Duo asked again: "Why are you gathering here? What is attracting you?"

Lai Si and Huo Li watched the remaining three Goblins curiously, looking forward to their performance. To tell the truth, when Xia Duo said earlier that the Goblins could understand human speech, they had been startled.

It was like domestic livestock suddenly speaking; even if they knew beforehand that Goblins were Wisdom-bearing creatures and could even form settlements and possess Faith, humans had never communicated with Goblins.

Or rather, humans only communicated with Goblins using swords and Magic.

A Goblin that could understand human speech?

This was truly too magical!

Actually, Xia Duo asking this was just holding a "try it and see" attitude. In the game he played before transmigrating, there were not only situations where Goblins understood humans, but also humans who understood Goblins.

It was just that here, Xia Duo had never heard of anyone studying the Goblin language. The Netheril people generally believed, shouldn't those filthy creatures be completely wiped out?

Perhaps some veteran Adventurers had too much experience clearing out Goblins and could understand some Goblin language, but that was not Xia Duo.

Upon the second inquiry, the four Goblins nodded in unison, but this was obviously not the result Xia Duo wanted. He even doubted whether the Goblins' nodding just now was just a guess.

Or perhaps they couldn't understand overly complex sentences? Or was it because there was no threat added?

"Stand up from the ground. The last one to stand up, I will cut off its ear!"

Swish——

One Goblin jumped up from the ground, followed by the second. The last one looked at its two companions in a daze, and when it wanted to get up, it was already too late——

Xia Duo hacked off its ear with one sword stroke. The Goblin clutched the severed spot, wailing incessantly, and in the end, it even tried to run away. Unfortunately, this action caused it to lose another ear.

The other two Goblins witnessed all of this from start to finish, chattering a string of words with unclear meaning, as if they were pledging loyalty, or perhaps scolding the earless Goblin.

Just like this, through step-by-step "indoctrination," Xia Duo made that Goblin which understood human language understand the questions he wanted to ask, and the other Goblin, under such "indoctrination," even came to understand some simple human language.

As for that earless Goblin, this ready-made "teaching tool" was already in a damaged state.

When Xia Duo asked them again what they were attracted by, these two Goblins were actually able to use a performance to tell Xia Duo that there was "something delicious" here.

Xia Duo immediately poked the two Goblins with the tip of his sword and ordered: "Number 1, take me to where the 'something delicious' is. Number 2, follow."

Afterward, he instructed Lai Si and Huo Li to notify Wuke and have Wuke temporarily drive the villagers into the olive grove.

Although the two Goblins had poor communication and he didn't know what the so-called "something delicious" actually was, from them, Xia Duo at least knew that there must be human factors involved in this Goblin disturbance.

Otherwise, what a coincidence, it didn't happen before, but it suddenly happened this year?

And those villagers watched the olive grove every day; it would be a ghost story if they really knew nothing about it!

Of course, Xia Duo also believed that the number of people in the know was definitely small. He almost concluded it was the village chief; if he were the mastermind, he would definitely have taken the village chief down with him in the first step, or threatened the village chief.

Once the village chief was handled, the others would naturally be handled by the village chief, which was efficient and reduced the risk of his own exposure.

……

After Lai Si and Huo Li left, Xia Duo returned alone, escorting the Goblins. But with two people missing, the minds of these two Goblins were clearly becoming active.

Not only were they dawdling while walking, they were also looking around from time to time, as if they had already forgotten Xia Duo's threat.

Only when Xia Duo poked them with the tip of his sword would they let out a few "wa-wa" weird cries, then behave for a while, before returning to their old ways, only to be pricked by the sword tip again and settle down.

"Sigh——"

Xia Duo suddenly felt that this kind of creature was so detestable!

No wonder the Netheril people spoke with swords and blades whenever they saw Goblins. Besides destroying farmland, stealing crops, being filthy and ugly, and having low intelligence, this kind of unruly personality also made them very difficult to tame.