Unlike the low-lying, muddy wetlands of the swamp, the jungle here grew on relatively high hills.
Not long after Jiang Ziliu entered the jungle, the Azurite Rock Man scouting ahead discovered Goblins quietly approaching.
He quickly climbed a relatively tall tree, then stationed his contracted beast, the Mutated Lightning Snake, beside him to keep watch.
Then Jiang Ziliu began driving the dark energy within his Soul Star at full strength, activating Life Aura Concealment and blending completely into the tree, as though the spot he occupied held nothing but air.
The Azurite Rock Man also swiftly sank underground, waiting for the moment to strike.
Before long, several Goblins between half a meter and a meter tall, with dark green skin and faces that looked just like Gollum's, crawled forward and stealthily poked their heads out of the bushes.
Their expressions were cautious as they carefully sniffed the air. Jiang Ziliu's human scent had drawn them over.
To Goblins, human flesh and blood smelled sweeter and tasted better than those of other exotic beasts.
Now Jiang Ziliu had completely concealed his presence. The powerful SSS Grade skill kept even a trace of his scent from escaping.
Likewise, using the skill to conceal even his scent consumed the most dark energy.
Gradually, more and more Goblins gathered.
These seemingly diminutive creatures carried rusty iron sabers, short spears, wooden clubs, and short bows, and numbered over thirty.
They formed a ring, surrounding the area around the tree where Jiang Ziliu was hiding.
The human scent had vanished somewhere nearby.
Goblins were quasi-Wisdom life-forms with a certain degree of wisdom, cruel and cunning, but not particularly intelligent.
However, they were naturally adapted to surviving in the jungle and had evolved a set of tactics for dealing with their enemies.
They could determine that the enemy they were after was nearby.
Over thirty Goblins would be tough to fight!
Jiang Ziliu felt that things were rather tricky.
Fortunately, after having the Azurite Rock Man scout underground for a while, he confirmed that there were only these thirty-odd Goblins nearby, with no others lying in ambush farther out.
Perhaps these were all the Goblins in this stretch of jungle, gathered here together.
Once he knew there were no new enemies hiding on the perimeter, Jiang Ziliu began directing the Rock Azurite Man in battle, while having the Lightning Snake watch the surrounding trees and sky for any new enemies.
Putting his own safety first was gradually becoming Jiang Ziliu's combat instinct.
He had gone from a complete novice to someone who could remain steady-minded and give calm orders in the face of danger.
He had already grown considerably in adapting to wilderness adventures.
In the jungle, a Goblin archer lay concealed atop a large rock.
Ranged attackers were always among the greatest threats in a Goblin tribe.
What it did not know was that, in the next instant, a short saber would silently emerge from the rock behind it and pierce its heart with a gentle thrust.
Rock was hard, but the Azurite Rock Man's Rock and Earth Evasion worked on it as well.
The smell of blood soon alerted the other Goblins. They were weak and cowardly, but their sense of smell was extremely keen.
They swiftly detected the scent and location of their kin's death!
Rock and Earth Evasion!
Rock and Earth Sneak Stab!
Rock and Earth Evasion!
Rock and Earth Sneak Stab!
Using the same skills in continuous succession, the Azurite Rock Man successfully eliminated three Goblin archers and four Goblin spear throwers, one at a time.
Their arrows and throwing spears might be weak, capable of inflicting only small wounds when they pierced an enemy, but they could not be dismissed.
Any experienced beast tamer would know that the tips of these Goblins' arrows and spears were coated in their own saliva!
Their saliva also contained a potent digestive poison. Although the toxin acted relatively slowly, its effects were by no means lacking.
When Jiang Ziliu had studied Goblins before, the book had specifically emphasized these points.
The remaining Goblins were all melee fighters!
Fortunately, there were no swampy pools here. Otherwise, he would have needed to check whether any Goblins were hiding in the mud beneath dead branches and rotting leaves.
As the bloody scent of their kin grew stronger, the Goblins felt afraid and quickly huddled together.
They had found no trace of the enemy's presence. When they tried locating it by smell, the enemy seemed to appear randomly, elusive as a ghost.
At this point, Jiang Ziliu chose to have the Azurite Rock Man reveal itself.
Saber in hand, it taunted the remaining twenty-odd Goblins from a distance, as though telling them it was their only enemy.
Gathering together seemed to give all the Goblins the courage to face their enemy again.
Their anger immediately surged, and they charged at the Azurite Rock Man.
The Azurite Rock Man immediately began running haphazardly around the area, occasionally sinking underground and bursting out again from another direction.
After all that chasing and scrambling, the Goblins that had originally gathered together were scattered once more.
They were no rigorously trained army capable of keeping its formation intact.
Then the Azurite Rock Man charged at a club-wielding Goblin on the outermost edge, leaped straight up, and brought its saber down.
The Goblin hurriedly raised its wooden club to block.
But the Azurite Rock Man was, after all, a Black Iron Grade contracted beast, an entire major grade above this two-star Gray Rock Grade Goblin, with several times its strength.
The immensely powerful slash cleaved straight through the wooden club, then cut the Goblin behind it in two!
By then, the other Goblins had also charged over.
Under Jiang Ziliu's direction, the Azurite Rock Man sank underground, swiftly moved behind them, and attacked another sword-wielding, three-star Gray Rock Grade Goblin.
The Azurite Rock Man swept its saber upward, his overwhelming strength sending the Goblin's longsword flying.
Then, as his opponent recoiled in terror, a horizontal slash sliced its head off!
Like this, the Azurite Rock Man faced only one opponent at a time, continually engaging in head-on combat under actual battle conditions.
During this process, the Azurite Rock Man rapidly mastered the saber techniques Jiang Ziliu had taught it, quickly adapting to fighting enemies head-on with a saber.
The saber grew increasingly nimble and practiced in its hands.
After he had cut down ten Goblins, fear finally gained the upper hand among the survivors, and they scattered all at once.
Next, Jiang Ziliu had the Azurite Rock Man pursue them, letting it act on its own.
Meanwhile, up in the trees, he had the Lightning Snake sense his movements.
He took out an iron pellet, aimed at the Goblins fleeing in another direction, and activated his feedback skill.
SSS+ grade Electromagnetic Manipulation.
The iron pellet floated in front of his hand. Supported by this skill, dark energy transformed into electricity, then formed a simulated electromagnetic circuit.
Boom!
The Electromagnetic Cannon fired successfully, launching the iron pellet like lightning!
Although this was his first attempt at using this skill, his strengthened soul gave him reasonably good aim.
The iron pellet punched straight through two Goblins lined up along its path.
Two kills with one shot!
However, Jiang Ziliu had used a little too much current. The instant the iron pellet fired, it also triggered a blast of air that injured his palm.
Ignoring his injury, Jiang Ziliu began using his uninjured left hand to unleash the Electromagnetic Cannon derived from Electromagnetic Manipulation.
This time, he reduced the amount of electricity.
He also swiftly withdrew his hand the instant the attack launched. This time, he missed the Goblin, but successfully avoided injuring his left hand.
With some experience under his belt, Jiang Ziliu continued using Electromagnetic Manipulation to fire Electromagnetic Cannon attacks one after another.
He killed seven Goblins in total.
The other Goblins eventually disappeared completely into the depths of the jungle, leaving Jiang Ziliu's sight and preventing him from increasing his tally.
Before long, the Azurite Rock Man returned as well. It had killed every Goblin along its pursuit route.
Jiang Ziliu's demonstration of the Electromagnetic Cannon had also given the Lightning Snake inspiration.
It was an exotic beast with spiritual awareness, after all, but Jiang Ziliu did not have it learn the technique right away, only familiarize itself with his control process.
Possessing SSS+ grade Electromagnetic Manipulation, it had naturally sensed Jiang Ziliu's earlier control process very clearly.
Copying the tiger by following the cat would pose no problem.
However, the Lightning Snake was a Black Iron Grade contracted beast. If it used the Electromagnetic Cannon, it would certainly cause a tremendous commotion.
Thus, Jiang Ziliu suppressed its impulse to try it now.
After all, this instance space was still under the control of the base's higher-ups, and Jiang Ziliu had not caused much of a disturbance when using it.
Jiang Ziliu had the Azurite Rock Man drag all the Goblin corpses back.
They had killed twenty-five Goblins altogether, a decent result.
Next, Jiang Ziliu began collecting the Goblins' beast cores and the useful materials from their bodies.
Before that, however, he covered his nose and mouth with a mask.
Though Goblins had an impressive sense of smell, they themselves stank terribly!
He removed their beast cores, hearts, and spines, discarding all the other materials.
Although Goblins were larger than Slimes, their bodies did not yield many useful materials.
Their flesh and blood were poisonous. Only their hearts, spines, and beast cores had value.
Goblin hearts were an ingredient in an excellent antidote formula, and even the material itself had strong detoxifying properties.
Their spines were tough, structurally stable, and flexible, suitable for making bone-whip weapons or the bone cords used on certain types of heavy armor.
Their beast cores, meanwhile, were multi-attribute energy cores of life that could be fed to most contracted beasts with ordinary attributes.
Relatively speaking, a single Goblin was worth less than a Slime.
Yet beast tamers entering this instance space still preferred going after Goblins.
Because Goblins liked collecting strange things, beast tamers often found good hauls in their lairs.
After finishing his collection of materials, Jiang Ziliu stealthily headed toward these Goblins' lair.
The Goblin remains here would soon be completely digested by Slimes drawn over by the smell.
Jiang Ziliu was extremely satisfied with this battle.
He could feel that, after a few more battles, the Azurite Rock Man would fully master the use of the short saber and solidify it into a skill of its own.
Saber techniques were very complex, after all, unlike the simple Rock and Earth Sneak Stab.
Jiang Ziliu was already extremely satisfied with the Azurite Rock Man's rapid progress.