The End

"Clatter."

The heavy hand axe fell straight to the ground, its Metal Axe Blade striking the cave floor with a crisp clang.

Huff—

Xia Nan gulped down air.

With the powerful enemy dead, the exhaustion and pain that had been suppressed by his intense concentration surged forth like a tide.

Even though leveling up had granted him two Attribute Points, it could not change the fact that his body was utterly exhausted.

The burst of power from increasing his attributes, combined with giving everything he had to kill the Bear Goblin, had already pushed him to his limit.

If another monster of the same level appeared now, he probably would not stand a chance of defeating it in his current state.

He spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm and touched his chest.

That was where the Bear Goblin had rammed him with its arm during the fight.

The pain lingering in his flesh gradually faded with time.

"Hope it didn't break any bones?" Xia Nan rejoiced inwardly.

Otherwise, with this world's near-medieval level of technology, he had no idea how he would treat it.

Then another thought crossed his mind. Since this was a fantasy world with supernatural powers, perhaps there were scrolls containing healing magic, or Priests capable of wielding healing Holy Light?

"Xia... Xia Nan..."

A weak, feeble call suddenly reached his ears.

Only after emerging from combat mode did Xia Nan finally realize that someone besides himself was still alive.

Maji looked especially miserable now.

One of his calves had been smashed to pulp, with jagged bone fragments protruding through the flesh. At the knee, only a little skin and flesh remained, like the crude joint of a cheap wooden puppet sold at the market.

His face was deathly pale, and his trembling lips were utterly bloodless. If not for the faint light still lingering in his eyes and his body quivering slightly from the intense pain, he would have looked no different from the Goblin corpses beside him.

"In my waist pouch... the red potion... help me..."

As though even his consciousness was gradually fading, Maji spoke with great difficulty, his words broken and intermittent.

He was the only remaining official member of the Stinky Fish Rotten Shrimp team, a comrade who had fought through death alongside him, and the old Hunter who alone knew the way out of Thin Mist Forest.

As a modern man who had received a higher education, possessed relatively normal values, and had a certain moral baseline, Xia Nan could not possibly stand by and watch him die.

So he crouched down and, following Maji's directions, pulled a small bottle from his waist pouch.

It was made of glass and shaped somewhat like a laboratory test tube, with a dark brown wooden stopper sealing the top.

Inside the bottle was roughly one-third full of red liquid. It had clearly been used many times, and when shaken vigorously, it faintly emitted a Glimmer.

Although Maji had not explained what it was, the overwhelming sense of familiarity it evoked let Xia Nan guess its general purpose at a glance.

"A health potion?" Xia Nan pulled the wooden stopper from the glass bottle for Maji. "Drink it or apply it externally?"

"Drink..." Maji nodded and opened his mouth. "All of it."

Hearing that, Xia Nan asked no more questions and poured the entire health potion into his mouth.

He did not know whether he had seen it wrong, but he vaguely sensed a hint of heartache in Maji's eyes.

As though this basic resource, so commonly found in all kinds of games and novels in his Previous Life, was incomparably precious.

And soon after, Xia Nan learned why Maji had worn that expression.

Almost the instant Maji's Adam's apple bobbed and the potion entered his stomach—

His face, previously drained white from excessive blood loss, immediately regained a healthy flush, and focus returned to his pupils.

His wounds stopped bleeding, while his chest, which had been heaving violently from difficulty breathing, gradually calmed.

Its miraculous effect was like something out of a movie.

Just when Xia Nan thought Maji would make a full recovery with that small half-bottle of potion—

Everything abruptly stopped.

His broken bones did not reset, and his calf remained twisted out of shape.

Clearly, although this health potion had already far exceeded Xia Nan's expectations, it was not powerful enough to regenerate severed limbs.

It could probably heal most minor injuries and provide some relief for severe ones?

"Better, much better." After drinking the potion, Maji was like a drowning man who had finally surfaced, greedily breathing in the foul air of the cave. "Thank you... thank you."

His face was covered in sweat from the pain, but his voice was no longer weak.

"You should go clear the battlefield first." He pulled several rolls of bandages from his waist pouch. "I can handle the rest myself."

According to the unwritten rules among adventurers that Maji had previously told him about, when clearing a battlefield, aside from things with clearly identified killers, such as Goblin ears, all other gains belonged to whoever found them.

By telling him to clear the battlefield, Maji was practically making it clear—

Everything gained from the Goblin Nest belonged to Xia Nan.

Xia Nan understood that without Maji's support from those two arrows earlier, he might not have been able to defeat the Bear Goblin even with his breakthrough during battle.

But since Maji had stated it so clearly, Xia Nan would not put on airs.

He gave Maji a slight nod and walked toward the other side of the cave.

Unlike in games, where a treasure chest automatically appeared after clearing a dungeon, or where a quick click of the mouse let you loot a mountain of items from monster corpses—

Collecting spoils in the real world was much more troublesome.

First came the Goblin corpses.

The bounty only applied to adults, so he ruthlessly sent the five Green Skin Whelps to join their beast fathers.

Skillfully stepping on their heads, he cut off the left ears of four Goblins in turn and placed them in the pouch behind him.

Then came the thorough search.

The cave was not large, and its furnishings were almost visible at a glance. Still, with the mindset of maximizing his profits, Xia Nan held up his torch and searched the entire place methodically, gaining a little something.

After discarding the inconvenient-to-carry and worthless items, the following were the spoils he had collected from the Goblin Nest:

Three pale green, striped opaque gemstones; a Wooden Small Shield whose surface was faintly damp and moldy; and a small bag of coins. He weighed it in his hand—it had a bit of heft, though it mostly contained Silver Coins and copper coins.

I wonder if these stones are worth anything?

Xia Nan pondered inwardly.

At the same time, Maji had finished treating his wounds.

"Well? Have you cleaned everything up?" Leaning against the wall, he stood with some difficulty.

His grotesquely twisted calf had been roughly secured with a Wooden Stick and bandages. Movement was still difficult, but at least it would not worsen the injury.

"More or less. I searched twice."

Xia Nan replied.

"Twice? You missed the most important thing."

With an amused look in his eyes, Maji jerked his chin toward the Bear Goblin's corpse.