Chapter Forty-Four: Goblins

Now that it could be roughly determined that the entities spying on them were goblins, a response was necessary.

"Let's head back to the camp first."

The group returned to the campsite.

Kana, the other two, and George gathered inside the largest tent.

Goblins were creatures on this continent that felt like wild monsters respawning at any moment.

Like weeds, they were constantly cut down only to spring up again.

The only consolation was that goblins traditionally built their lairs far away from the settlements of intelligent life, conducting scattered raids in small parties.

"We've barely set up camp here for two days, and already goblins are lurking around. That basically confirms there must be a goblin lair somewhere in the vicinity of the location we chose."

Within the game, this region was somewhat chaotic.

Overall, however, after the game's official launch, most of this territory fell under the control of the Blood Tribe.

This meant that over the next year or two, all the wild monsters in this area would be cleared out by the vampires.

Thus, his only current advantages were his knowledge of the monsters and his familiarity with the geography of this region.

"These goblins are scrawny, evil, and insidious."

"Like those rats?" Aliris asked.

Immediately turning her head afterward, she added, "I didn't mean you, Popot."

"It's fine, I certainly don't identify as one."

Kana nodded. "Pretty much. The only difference is that goblins are slightly stronger than rats, but they can't speak and aren't as smart. For now, you can think of them as rather dim rat-men, though they're definitely bolder than rat-men."

Goblins sat at the absolute bottom of the wild monster food chain.

Rat-men were different; they could roughly be classified as an evil race rather than mere wild monsters.

After briefly explaining this to the others, Kana fell into deep thought, recalling various early-game details from the video game.

As he pondered, he remembered a group of dwarves living within the mountain range.

In the early stages of the game, the available playable races were humans, dwarves, and elves—three races in total.

The narrative at the time presented it such that all three races gathered in the starter village for various reasons.

The reason the dwarves gathered in the starter village was that they lived right on the Gray Mountains, which served as the dividing line between the Safro Kingdom and the Koen Kingdom.

The Blood Tribe had impacted them as well.

Recalling the early-game dwarf storyline carefully, they had actually suffered far less harassment from the Blood Tribe than from goblins at the time.

Why were there so many goblins in the Gray Mountains back then? There had been quite a few around the starter village, too.

Could it be that the presence of the Blood Tribe forced many of the goblins here to migrate outward?

A large number of them had flooded into the mountain range and onto the other side of the mountains.

Thinking along these lines, the population of goblins in this region wasn't small.

Dwarves were not weak, although the population of dwarves in the Gray Mountains was small, barely sustaining a single tribe.

If the goblin population in this area was substantial, did they exist in scattered small tribes or as a single large tribe?

Without external pressure, goblins would never gather into a large tribe.

Therefore, they could only exist in the form of small tribes.

Thinking this through, Kana roughly straightened out his thoughts.

"Then the four of us will scout out the traces of these goblins to see how many of them are roaming the surroundings. The rest of the soldiers will be assigned to defend the perimeter and maintain strict vigilance," Kana said.

"Just the four of us?" Aliris frowned.

She didn't know what goblins looked like, but she had fought rat-men just a few days ago.

The sudden mutation of those rat-men that day had posed a significant danger to them.

Would it be too dangerous for just the four of them to go?

Kana roughly understood their concerns and explained simply, "We're only going to scout. Taking too many soldiers is extremely inconvenient, and what if some other danger attacks the camp in the meantime? I'm the only one here who knows much about goblins, and Popot doesn't know many details either. Rest assured, we're just scouting to figure out the exact numbers of this group of goblins, and then we'll figure out how to deal with them."

Hearing Kana's words, the others nodded.

As for George, he felt a mixture of nervousness and excitement.

"It's still early enough; let's set out immediately, or the tracks will disappear by tomorrow."

With that, the group left the camp directly, leaving temporary command in the hands of the soldier captain.

Entering the forest, George led the way, tracking the footprints forward.

"Walk slowly, watch out for traps," Kana reminded them.

After trekking through the forest for about an hour, Aliris suddenly frowned, came to a halt, and sniffed the air with a furrowed brow.

"There's the scent of blood—very faint, probably not human."

Kana frowned and sniffed as well, but he couldn't smell anything, which meant the source of the blood scent was rather far away, beyond his current sensory capabilities.

"It doesn't quite smell like an animal either. It's strange."

Hearing this, Kana pondered for a moment. "Then it's very likely goblins or something similar. Lead the way."

Aliris nodded.

The group followed behind Aliris. They hadn't walked much farther when Kana finally caught the scent of blood as well.

Moreover, he managed to extract some information from the scent, and the sensation was peculiar.

Unlike Aliris, even though this was the first time Kana had smelled this scent, he quickly matched the blood odor with the knowledge stored in his mind.

"It is goblins."

With confirmation, the group pressed onward and soon heard shouting echoing from the distance through the silent forest.

The shouts were extremely shrill, laced with agony.

By this point, the stench of goblin blood was thick enough to be suffocating; this was far beyond the lingering scent of just one or two dead goblins.

"Something is fighting the goblins. Let's proceed with caution."

Maintaining their vigilance, the group soon caught sight of the source of the commotion.

A large creature resembling a leopard was locked in a fierce battle with a pack of goblins.

About three goblins from the surrounding pack were already dead or severely injured, but four others were still standing, wielding crude weapons as they attempted to surround the leopard.

"Roar!"

With an angry bellow, the leopard-like beast emitted a roar that formed visible shockwaves in the air.

The two goblins standing at the front were blown straight back, while the ones in the rear staggered dizzily.

Taking advantage of this opening, the leopard lunged forward, instantly flattening one goblin with a paw and pinning another to the ground, its claws piercing the skull.

With a sideways twist of its head and a vicious shake, it flung yet another goblin away like a ragdoll, crashing it hard against a tree trunk.

Three more members were lost in an instant.

The remaining goblin finally lost its nerve, screaming as it turned and fled.

The leopard did not pursue. Instead, it picked up a corpse in its jaws and bounded away into the thicket.

"Let's go. We'll follow that goblin."

That goblin had been scared out of its wits and would undoubtedly flee straight back to its lair.