Chapter 134: Goblin Mutation Talent

Chapter 134: Chapter 134: Goblin Mutation Talent

The list of targets he’d set earlier still included the thick-hided Iron-skinned Wild Boar.

If there was a slaughterhouse, he wouldn’t have to search for them one by one in the vast forest, a task akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

Although Iron-skinned Wild Boars were numerous in Copper Creek Forest, they were solitary by nature. They would only gather in groups during their mating season in late autumn.

Trying to farm them in the wild during this season was simply too inefficient.

This was a godsend.

Toby noticed that this mysterious stranger seemed very interested in boar meat. Seizing the opportunity, he immediately launched into a sales pitch.

"Sir, I’m telling you, our family’s boars are all free-range, raised on the mountain behind our house. The meat is so firm and..."

SMACK!

A loud smack landed squarely on the back of Toby’s head.

Fibi, who was standing nearby, couldn’t take it anymore. She pulled back her right hand.

"Sir, thank you so much for saving our lives."

Fibi pulled Toby behind her and apologized sincerely.

"He just runs his mouth and isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Please don’t pay him any mind."

"It’s fine."

Lance flicked the blood from his hand, his voice flat.

"Still, with your current level of strength, you shouldn’t have ventured so deep into an area filled with pack Demons."

Hearing this, Toby clutched his aching head and spilled the beans, explaining the whole sequence of events.

It turned out that a while back, they had accepted a request from the Baihua Town Guild concerning a haunted old mansion.

When they arrived in full gear, they discovered it wasn’t an Evil Spirit at all, just an Ordinary House Spirit that had possessed a stray cat.

However, while trying to capture the House Spirit, Toby accidentally triggered and broke an old mechanism in the basement.

Inside a secret compartment in the mechanism, they found a parchment map and a short poem.

The three youths thought they’d stumbled upon a grand treasure straight out of an adventure novel, so they excitedly followed the map’s directions into the forest on a treasure hunt.

"That’s the part that really gets me."

Toby scratched his messy hair and sighed helplessly.

"After all the trouble we went through to find the location on the map, we discovered it was just a sea of wildflowers. There was no treasure chest full of Gold Coins."

"And to make matters worse, there were wandering Gnolls in the area."

The more Toby spoke, the more aggrieved he felt.

"We did detailed reconnaissance before we dared to come here. Back then, the Guild’s intelligence reports never mentioned any Gnoll activity in this area."

Upon hearing this, Lance understood perfectly.

The three youths hadn’t made a mistake with their intelligence gathering.

It was just that the Guild had recently organized a joint sweep, which had scattered the Gnoll Tribe that lived deep in the forest.

Having lost their territory, the Gnolls were forced to roam, and they just so happened to wander into this region.

It could only be said that Toby and his two friends had rotten luck.

"After this adventure, I’ve finally figured it out."

Toby looked at the mangled monster corpses on the ground and shook his head, his heart still pounding with fear.

"I should just stay in Baihua Town and learn how to be a butcher from my dad."

"I used to dream of becoming a great, renowned adventurer, but now I see we just don’t have the Talent for it. We almost died just from running into a few Gnolls."

Having accepted his reality, Toby reached into his coat, pulled out the troublesome parchment scroll, and held it out to Lance.

"Sir, if you’re interested in treasure hunting, this parchment map is yours."

Toby suddenly gave him a conspiratorial wink and a strange look.

"There might not be any treasure there, but the scenery is gorgeous. It’s the perfect place to take a girl to confess your feelings, you know?"

Lance didn’t refuse. He took the scroll and unrolled the coarse parchment.

A few crookedly drawn streams and the general direction of a mountain range were sketched on the yellowed paper.

At the very bottom of the parchment, a line of elegant, small script was written in the common tongue.

"When the midsummer moon casts its silver glow, and fireflies of stardust sleep in the silent sea of flowers..."

Lance looked at the words and subconsciously read them aloud in a low voice.

The moment he recited the line of poetry, he suddenly felt the ring on his right index finger begin to grow faintly warm.

He immediately stopped chanting, and just as he expected, the strange warmth vanished instantly.

Lance’s heart skipped a beat.

’So this is it. The treasure the old Guild President mentioned, left behind by the Star Night Witch, Elisya.’

A sea of flowers, fireflies, midsummer.

Looking at these romantic words, Lance felt as if he was being force-fed a public display of affection from a predecessor decades his senior.

"Thanks."

Lance reined in his wandering thoughts and expressed his thanks sincerely.

He carefully folded the parchment and tucked it away, then raised a hand and pointed east, showing the three the safest route back.

"Head straight east from here, and you’ll leave this dangerous area."

"I’ve just cleared all the Demons along that path. As long as you don’t wander off, you won’t be in any danger."

"Thank you! We’ll leave right away!"

Blushing, Finn stepped forward and gave Lance a deep bow.

Fibi also nodded gratefully.

Then she grabbed the collar of Toby, who still wanted to cozy up to Lance, and dragged him off in the direction Lance had indicated.

"Goodbye, Sir! You have to come find me in Baihua Town for some boar! I’ll save the most tender loin for you, I promise!"

Toby was dragged backward by his fiancée, his hands still flailing in the air as he yelled.

Lance let out a long breath only after the three lively figures had completely disappeared into the bushes at the forest’s edge.

He looked up at the sky.

He still hadn’t met his hunting quota for the day. He had to hurry.

The slaughter continued in the forest.

Until the setting sun stained the clouds orange-red.

On his way back, Lance got lucky and found a small Goblin Camp hidden in a mountain hollow.

As the last green-skinned monster collapsed into a pool of blood, he finally accumulated all the research points he needed.

[Demon·Goblin Level 4 (Racial Talent can be extracted)]

Looking at the prompt on the translucent screen, Lance mentally clicked the "Extract" button.

[Extracting... Extracted Racial Talent: Low Light Vision]

[Warning: Goblin genetic Sequence detected as extremely unstable! During consolidation and Adaptive Transformation, interference from Red Dragon Transformation has occurred. Benign genetic assimilation and overwriting in progress...]

[Solidifying mutated Racial Talent: Eyes of the Young Dragon (Green)]

[Description: The weak Goblin Perception gene was forcibly devoured and restructured by the Red Dragon blood within you. The structure of your eyes has undergone a profound mutation, evolving toward that of an apex predator.]

[Effect: Your base Perception cap is increased by +2. You have gained night vision equivalent to that of the Dragon Race, along with a minor improvement to your dynamic vision and motion tracking abilities.]

[Bonus Effect: Very slightly increases the concentration of the Giant Dragon bloodline within you.]

A faint, warm current flowed around his eyes.

Lance opened his eyes.

He discovered that the forest shadows around him, which had already begun to grow dim, were now perfectly clear in his vision.

This would be incredibly useful for camping out at night.