Chapter 621 Three Days Later

"Skree!"

A sharp, twisted screech echoed among the hills.

Green skin riddled with pustules and sores, a hunched, emaciated body like a shriveled corpse dead for days—every movement it made exuded a rotten, repulsive ugliness that practically bled into the air.

Muddy eyes filled with hunger, thick drool dripping from yellowed, rotten teeth, sharpened branches, crude wooden clubs, and primitive skirts stitched from leaves and the pelts of small animals—this was a hunting squad made up of exactly six adult goblins.

Not too many, not too few.

As the absolute bottom-feeders among the forest's so-called "predators," a lone Goblin probably couldn't even outrun a wild hare in the bushes, nor would it possess the energy or intelligence to craft traps and weapons.

But once the number of goblins increased past a certain threshold, it was as if a hidden switch flipped within the tribe. Along with a blazing surge of courage and hunger, it was as though some invisible entity poured primitive knowledge into their minds, teaching them to craft hunting tools from the simplest raw materials like early humans, and even granting them a grasp of basic tactics.

There were even veteran adventurers with rich experience who, in a region of the Wilderness supposedly occupied by an ultra-massive goblin tribe, had discovered traces of what seemed to be a highly intelligent civilization.

Of course, this recently formed goblin squad roaming the hills of Calm Peaks Province was nowhere near that level in either scale or destructive power.

Totaling a mere six members, they would struggle to hunt even slightly larger wild beasts head-on.

But they were, after all, still considered the lowest tier of intelligent creatures. The existence of "tools" granted these Goblins the ability to attack—and potentially even gain the upper hand against—creatures higher up the food chain.

"Awoo!"

A faint scent of blood lingered in the air.

A sub-adult gray-furred wolf beast, visibly smaller than a mature specimen by several sizes, huddled against the hard rock wall behind it, as if that alone could provide it with a sliver of much-needed security.

Overall, it didn't look too heavily injured. However, its left hind leg was curled up in an awkward posture. Although the crude animal trap had already fallen off during its struggles, it still left a ring of mangled, bleeding flesh peeled back along the outside of the gray wolf's thigh.

With its leg injured, escape was impossible, and its stamina had been thoroughly exhausted from the struggle.

All it could do was cower against the wall and instinctively bare its fangs at the encroaching enemies, letting out threatening, low growls in the desperate hope of scaring the filthy, ugly little runts away.

It was somewhat effective at first. Though the goblins possessed low intelligence and were driven by their base desires, they still retained a shred of survival instinct. As long as their numbers and internal frenzy hadn't crossed a specific threshold, they knew to avoid danger and wouldn't blindly throw their lives away.

Basically, every time the wolf beast bared its fangs and snarled, it managed to force the encroaching Goblins back a few steps.

But as the scent of blood in the air grew increasingly tempting, the wolf beast's growls steadily weakened, and its threatening snarls began to lose their effect.

It was entirely foreseeable that in ten minutes—a half-hour at most—this cornered, dying beast, after enduring prolonged torment, would become a delicious dinner for the goblin squad.

But—

It was like an adult dragon soaring high in the sky suddenly catching a glimpse of something shiny; like a starving Shark Beast catching the scent of blood in the ocean.

The signature "Skree!" shrieks of the green-skinned Goblins were a symbol of nightmares for ordinary villagers, and a declaration of battle for guarding soldiers.

But for a certain black-haired adventurer who had gone far too long without a release due to the demands of travel, they were no different from an oasis in the desert.

"Awooo!"

A deep, resonant wolf howl closed the distance at an exaggerated speed that ordinary people simply couldn't react to.

They didn't even amount to speed bumps. Before the goblins could even identify what was attacking them, they were swept up by a biting gale and reduced to unrecognizable chunks of flesh and severed limbs amid a spray of bloody mist.

The only thing left behind was the dumbfounded gray wolf by the rock wall, trembling violently in petrified shock, looking as if a speeding train had just brushed past its nose.

Continuing to travel using [Fang Hunt], Xia Nan savored the wonderful sensation from his brief encounter with the goblins. He still felt unsatisfied, feeling as though he hadn't made the most of them.

If not for his desire to reach Bloodcast Keep as early as possible, he genuinely would have been willing to stop here and play around with those little cuties for a while.

But he was disciplined enough to know when to focus on the task at hand and when he could afford to indulge a little.

After undergoing a brief but exceptionally difficult internal struggle, he ultimately relied on his formidable willpower to forcibly suppress his inner desires.

Right now, three days had passed since he helped rescue the conscription squad from the Manticores' siege.

The journey could generally be considered smooth.

As a lone-wolf adventurer with a fairly decent Class Level, he didn't need to worry about teammates and could approach everything on his own terms.

The convenience brought by his robust physical attributes and combat techniques meant Xia Nan didn't have to follow the winding, fixed routes on the map—routes that were highly likely staked out by various bandits.

He could just draw a straight line between Salt Rock Port and Bloodcast Keep and charge straight ahead.

And the massive amount of supplies prepared ahead of time inside the [White Flask] pocket watch gave him the confidence to do exactly that.

Of course, he wasn't a mighty powerhouse at the Transcendent Tier like Forgan.

Although Xia Nan's actual combat prowess far exceeded his Class Level, and his development was relatively well-rounded, he still chose to detour slightly whenever he encountered particularly dangerous terrain or sensed the territorial markings of troublesome monsters, making his actual progress a bit slower than planned.

Still, it was within an acceptable range.

His mind unconsciously drifted back to the intelligence he had gathered from his conversation with that squad captain a few days ago.

Unexpectedly, the Barbarian Forgan's travel speed was far slower than he had imagined.

Despite setting out from Salt Rock Port so many days ahead of him, it was estimated that Forgan still hadn't reached Bloodcast Keep yet. This was clearly not the speed a mighty entity nearing the Legendary rank should possess.

Xia Nan guessed that the man might have encountered some unexpected situation along the way, causing him to slow down his travel efficiency.

The good news was that, according to the squad captain's description, he didn't see any traces of battle on Forgan, and the man had been in perfect condition.

This allowed Xia Nan to heave a silent sigh of relief.

Rushing all the way here from Barracuda Bay had already been fraught with endless twists and turns. It was hard to imagine getting dragged into a battle at Forgan's level on top of that.

At the same time, despite knowing that Forgan was highly likely also on the road from Salt Rock Port to Bloodcast Keep, Xia Nan only accelerated his pace to a certain extent; he didn't push forward recklessly.

On one hand, the two of them shared a common destination.

Since their ultimate goal was Bloodcast Keep anyway, they were bound to meet eventually.

A little earlier or a little later, a few days wouldn't make a difference.

There was no need to completely disrupt his already established plans just because of this news. If it ended up compromising his own safety, the loss would outweigh the gain.

On the other hand, if Xia Nan wanted to speed up, he would need to use [Fang Hunt] at a high frequency over long periods of time to travel, which would cause a massive drain on his stamina.

Approaching the border of the Servia Kingdom all by himself, there was no telling what kind of trouble he might run into. It was only sensible to maintain a certain reserve of stamina at all times to deal with sudden emergencies.

Therefore, even while slightly accelerating, he still managed and distributed his stamina consumption reasonably.

Besides that, regarding the current situation of his destination, Bloodcast Keep, Xia Nan had also taken advantage of the precious opportunity to converse with the conscription squad captain—a soldier who had just retreated from the frontlines—to ask further questions.

The situation the man explained sounded incredibly simple on the surface: it was just an increase in monsters, which led to severe troop casualties at the border, forcing them to draft local adventurers.

But if one thought about it carefully, the whole thing was riddled with suspicious points.

Bloodcast Keep had stood at the border for a century, primarily facing enemy nation invasions. Why were so many dangerous monsters suddenly popping up now?

The kingdom could clearly mobilize official forces from elsewhere to replenish their troops. Why were they letting Bloodcast Keep conscript adventurers without offering the slightest response?

And operating under these premises, what kind of role was the Barbarian Forgan—who was advancing with Bloodcast Keep as his goal—playing in all this, and what was his position?

Complicated thoughts intertwined and tangled in his mind.

Although he didn't have enough intelligence to tease out a relatively clear narrative from these doubts in the short term, he still couldn't help but raise his guard and prepare himself for unexpected situations.

Well—to put it bluntly, he was ultimately just a low-level Class Holder who had recently advanced to Level 4. If the sky fell, the Servia Kingdom would be there to hold it up.

Thinking a bit more was certainly fine, but in many cases, focusing on the road ahead was also a wise choice.

Finally, there was the minor interlude he had encountered on the road: the master and servant who claimed to be from the Imperial Capital's "Shield of the Silver Lake" family.

The impression the two gave Xia Nan was somewhat similar to the half-elf Hai'an and the Rogue Wood, whom he had met at the beginning of his adventures.

It was just that, perhaps due to his age, the blond-haired boy named Zanfrey appeared much greener in every aspect—a complete, fresh-faced rookie.

Correspondingly, however, Ake's strength tier far exceeded that of the half-elf and his guard. His Class Level was estimated to be around Level 3.

But if what they said was true, and that blond-haired, blue-eyed boy really was the third young master from a major noble family in the Imperial Capital, to travel so far with only a Level 3 guard in tow—

Xia Nan could already vividly picture an entire saga of aristocratic family drama in his head.

Considering that the duo would presumably follow the conscription squad to Bloodcast Keep in the future, he probably ought to keep a bit of distance from this master and servant unless absolutely necessary, just to avoid getting tangled up in unnecessary trouble.

His thoughts flowed smoothly through his mind.

The wolf howl gradually faded, and Xia Nan stopped atop a relatively high hill.

Taking a short break to recover his stamina, he traced a fine metal chain with his left hand into the lining of his armor, pressing down lightly on something.

Accompanied by a crisp click and the extremely faint hum of spinning hands, the air above his right palm warped slightly, and a scroll materialized out of thin air.

Unfurling it flat on the ground revealed a detailed map tracking the route from Salt Rock Port to Bloodcast Keep, large enough to cover a double bed.

Bound by the sheer size of the map itself and the preservation conditions on the road, very few Adventurer Squads would normally carry such a massive, detailed map on their persons.

But Xia Nan, in possession of the [White Flask] pocket watch, was naturally not bound by such restrictions. With each slot offering a cubic meter of malleable space, stuffing a thin map inside couldn't be any easier.

Standing on the hillside, his gaze swept back and forth between the map and the scenery ahead.

His brows furrowed slightly.

This wasn't the technologically advanced society of his previous life, nor was it some video game world.

Xia Nan believed that with the development level of magical technology on the Aifala Continent, something akin to a "Marauder's Map" definitely existed.

But right now, what he was carrying was just an ordinary leather map.

It wouldn't display his current real-time location on its surface.

If he wanted to determine where he was at this moment, he had to find a suitable point of reference to compare with the map's routes.

But the border of Calm Peaks Province was densely packed with hills. From afar, it was just a lush, verdant expanse of rolling peaks and ridges; finding an obvious landmark was genuinely difficult in the short term.

Coupled with the fact that he had needed to skirt around the territories of powerful monsters and bypass certain extreme terrains over the past few days, he had already drifted slightly off his intended route.

If he blindly pushed forward without knowing his bearings, he was afraid he'd get completely lost.

Just as he was mulling over a countermeasure in his mind, a wisp of curling cooking smoke rising from among the mountains suddenly caught Xia Nan's attention.

He subconsciously looked over. As his Class Grade vision kicked in, he could vaguely make out the faint, blurry silhouettes of buildings hidden amid the vegetation.

It seemed to be—a small village nestled in the mountain woods?

Xia Nan's eyes couldn't help but light up.

He took a few more careful looks to memorize its exact location, then put the map back into the [White Flask] pocket watch and unleashed [Fang Hunt] to rush over.

Out of caution, worried that it might be an evil Barbarian tribe hiding deep in the mountains, Xia Nan stopped using his combat technique before approaching the small village, carefully remaining alert for any potential traps in the vicinity.

Fortunately, his luck under the buff of the [Fate Glimmer] die was fairly decent.

After walking a full half-circle around the village, he only discovered a few simple hunting snares used by ordinary hunters.

And the traces of intelligent activity left in the woods also proved that this was just a small gathering place for human commoners—the most common sight on the Aifala Continent.

He merely wanted to find a local resident to ask for directions and had no intention of staying the night.

With ample supplies inside his pocket watch's space, there was no need to consume the impoverished villagers' already meager resources.

At the same time, he was keenly aware of the kind of image an adventurer like himself had in the eyes of ordinary commoners.

To avoid unnecessary trouble as much as possible, Xia Nan didn't even plan on entering the village; he intended to just find someone nearby to clarify his current bearings and leave immediately.

But to his surprise, just as he circled around to the village entrance, he heard a furious roar, mingled with the dull thud of metal piercing flesh, echoing from within.