Encounter, Two Trolls

A wild boar weighing roughly 200 jin was quickly butchered under the practiced hands of the Lerr brothers, Lerr and Land.

All its internal organs were removed, and a small pit was dug to bury them.

Tang Zheng found it rather wasteful. The Rock team and Nfirea and his grandmother seemed completely uninterested in the organs.

Clearly, they were not accustomed to eating them.

Naturally, Tang Zheng did not say anything.

Despite how these people acted like ordinary lower-class figures in the anime,

neither the Adventurers nor Nfirea and his grandmother, who owned a potion shop, belonged to the ranks of the poor.

The cleaned boar meat was placed over the bonfire and began to roast. Soon, layers of fat dripped down, raising the temperature of the flames once more!

A savory aroma began to fill the air.

The captain, Dosari, walked over from the side and sat down beside Tang Zheng, speaking in a hearty tone.

Tang Zheng kept an attentive expression, nodding from time to time and replying with a sentence or two. Most of the time, Dosari was the one talking.

Nfirea was much the same, deeply interested in the Adventurer's experiences.

Although Captain Dosari mostly told amusing stories from his past adventures, with more than a little boasting mixed in, Tang Zheng could still glean some useful information from his words.

The next day.

At dawn, everyone set out once more.

The road ahead became more difficult to travel, especially as they drew closer to the border. The vast, towering Azerlisia Mountains, stretching beyond the limits of sight, had already appeared before them.

The relaxed atmosphere from before also grew much more serious.

Along the way!

There were gradually more attacks from Monsters, though most were relatively weak beasts!

Tang Zheng smoothly gained quite a bit of experience as well.

The Azerlisia Mountains separated the Re-Estize Kingdom from the Baharuth Empire, forming a natural barrier between the two nations.

According to Captain Dosari, the two countries had actually been one nation 400 years ago. For some unknown reason, however, that enormous nation was destroyed and split into the two countries that existed today.

Suddenly.

"Stay alert!"

The archer Bask, who was guarding the rear of the carriage, suddenly issued a warning. His ears twitched slightly, and his face turned solemn and grave.

"Something big is coming!"

At those words, the expressions of the other members of the Rock team all changed.

Grandmother Lizzie pulled on the reins without expression, bringing the carriage to a halt. Nfirea, sitting inside, nervously gripped the carriage's wooden railing with both hands.

Tang Zheng noticed the changes in the Rock team's expressions, and his gaze sharpened.

After spending this time with them, Tang Zheng knew that the archer called Basak possessed the Talent of hearing far beyond that of ordinary people.

Besides serving as the Adventurer team's ranged firepower, he also handled intelligence gathering.

For him to be this tense, he had clearly heard something terrifying!

But!

Tang Zheng remained fairly calm. The real powerhouse in this group was not the Adventurer team, but the grandmother Lizzie driving the carriage.

"Wa! Wa!"

"Wa-wa!!"

"...!"

Shrill cries rang out as rustling came from the grass beside the road, and figures burst out.

They were Goblins, less than a meter tall, with dark-green skin and extremely thin bodies. Their pupils were white, and their faces looked vicious.

There were ten of them in total!

Tang Zheng swept his eyes over the Goblins. Most held wooden clubs or similar weapons. Though their numbers were considerable, they were not actually much of a threat.

Goblins were a weak race with a low intelligence and an extremely rapid rate of reproduction. In a one-on-one fight, an ordinary adult could kill a Goblin if they were careful.

Much less the Rock team. Judging by their levels, Silver Rank Adventurer teams had an average level of around seven to ten.

Of course, there were several varieties of Goblins as well.

Was the truly dangerous part still behind them?

Tang Zheng's gaze passed over the Goblins that had charged out and looked toward the dense forest behind the grass.

Bang!

Bang!

Heavy footsteps approached. Compared to the Goblins that had rushed out first, shrieking as they came, the beings behind them gave off an oppressive presence.

"Everyone, pay attention!"

Captain Dosari drew the twin swords at his waist and shouted in a low, solemn voice.

"Roar!"

Following a beast-like roar,

a figure more than two meters tall emerged with heavy strides. It was fat and powerfully built, with dark-yellow skin and a layer of armor-like hide covered in short spikes across its back.

"Is that a Troll? No! There are two!" the archer Basak said with an ugly expression.

"Wa-wa-wa!"

"Wa-wa-wa!"

The ten Goblins, which had still been somewhat unwilling to advance, immediately grew bolder when they saw the two Trolls appear. Waving their wooden clubs, they charged toward the carriage.

"Take care of the Goblins first!"

Captain Dosari charged out first. He raised the long sword in his right hand and suddenly threw it forward.

With a sharp whistle as it tore through the air,

the long sword struck the Goblin running at the very front. The blade pierced straight into its chest with astonishing precision!

The Goblin let out a scream. Pale-green blood gushed from the wound where the blade had passed through, splattering across the ground!

Captain Dosari reached the Goblin at that moment, planted one foot heavily on its chest, then gripped the hilt with his right hand and yanked upward. Blood mixed with scraps of flesh sprayed out again.

At the same time!

Captain Dosari swung the sword in his left hand and chopped off the head of the Goblin beside him.

At the same time,

Gore and Land, the two brothers, raised their arms and braced the silver shields strapped to them in front of their bodies as they charged forward.

The two of them knocked a Goblin flat together, then slammed their shields down, smashing it into a mass of flesh.

Compared to the bloody movements of the first three,

the archer Bask was far more elegant. He calmly drew and fired his arrows, quickly shooting two Goblins dead.

In just a moment, six of the ten Goblins had already been eliminated by the Rock team.

Tang Zheng watched this scene and drew a slow breath.

He was not nervous. He simply felt slightly nauseated by the bloody sight.

They had encountered scattered attacks from Monsters along the way, so this was not the first time he had seen such a scene.

But as a modern person, he still felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Smelling the sharp, bloody stench in the air,

and seeing the Goblin heads chopped off in the distance and the bodies crushed beneath the shields, Tang Zheng increasingly felt the reality of this entire world.

At that moment,

apart from feeling somewhat sick, Tang Zheng also sensed a strange excitement stirring within him.

He suddenly gained some understanding of the Eight Greed Kings, who had once thrown the entire continent into chaos!

While Tang Zheng was lost in thought, the remaining four Goblins were quickly dealt with by the Rock team as well.

And the two enormous Trolls charged out of the forest with furious roars!