35: Chapter 35 Encounter with a Goblin Tribe

He could almost see the utter despair of those lords with weak troop types and poor development when they encountered contaminated monsters that feared no pain and possessed bizarre attributes.

Had it not been for his "Fusion of All Things" talent, which defied the heavens and changed his fate, his own start with ordinary Militia would likely have already made him one of those vanished statistics.

"Fortunately..." he whispered to himself, a mix of relief and lingering fear in his heart, though more than that, a heavy sense of responsibility.

The wails in the channel did not give him any sense of superiority; instead, they made him even more determined in the path he had chosen. In troubled times, only strength was the sole guarantee of survival and dignity.

Time slipped away quietly amidst his grave contemplation.

At this moment, the squad led by Lin Yin and Lin Yan had just finished clearing out a nest and were preparing to move forward when they heard an unusual noise from the bushes on their side—not the roar of a monster, but rather... the sound of something stealthily creeping and rustling.

Lin Yin immediately drew her bow, and an arrow wreathed in moonlight left the string silently, vanishing into the bushes.

"Ah!" A sharp, strange cry rang out, and a figure rolled out in a sorry state.

It was a green-skinned creature less than 1.4 meters tall, its skin an unpleasant dark green, covered in wrinkles and warts. It had pointed ears, monkey-like cheeks, and a pair of yellowish eyes that, even in terror, darted about, flashing with greed, cunning, and a repulsive, lecherous gaze.

It was wrapped in rough animal hides and had a rusty short blade tucked into its waist.

"Don't kill me! My lord! Elf lord! Don't kill me!" The green-skinned runt curled up on the ground, its voice shrill, hands waving about frantically.

"It can talk?" Lin Yin frowned slightly; this was unexpected.

However, the creature's unmasked, filthy gaze sweeping back and forth over her body stirred up strong disgust and a chill in her heart.

She was cold on the outside but warm on the inside, gentle toward her companions, but never showed mercy to her enemies, especially to lecherous wretches like this one.

"Answer my question. Who are you? Why are you spying here?" Her voice grew even colder.

"I... I am a warrior of the great Goblin Gluck tribe! Patrolman Carlo!" The green-skinned runt seemed to find a bit of confidence and struggled to stand up, but its eyes remained glued to Lin Yin's holy face and figure, and it even swallowed a mouthful of saliva. "You... you cannot kill me! If you kill me, the Gluck tribe will not let you off! We have over a thousand warriors! Gahaha!"

"A tribe? What is your strength like?" Lin Yin forced herself to suppress the urge to strike immediately and pressed for an answer.

"Scared, aren't you!" The Goblin patrolman who called himself Carlo puffed out its withered chest, the fear in its yellow eyes replaced by arrogance. "Our Lord Gluck is a powerful Bronze 3-star leader! There are plenty of black iron-grade warriors like me! If you're smart, let me go quickly and serve me well, and maybe I can put in a good word for you... Ah!"

Before it could finish, a cold glint appeared in Lin Yin's eyes. The filthy language and blasphemous gaze had touched her bottom line.

Without even asking again, she raised her longbow and flicked her jade-like fingers. Another moonlit arrow shot out like lightning, and with a "pfft" sound, it precisely pierced Carlo's thigh, pinning it to a tree trunk behind it as a shrill scream echoed through the forest.

"If you spout any more nonsense, the next arrow will be through your head." Lin Yin's voice seemed capable of freezing the air.

Carlo was crying and snotting from the pain, and finally, fear overwhelmed everything else. It stuttered and revealed some information: the tribe was in a valley deeper inside, with a population of over a thousand, the leader Gluck was the strongest, and there were dozens of small chieftains at Bronze 1 or 2-star level.

However, when the severe pain and fear subsided slightly and it looked up again, its gaze meeting Lin Yin's cold, beautiful face, the greed and stupidity deeply embedded in its race's bones reared their heads again, and it muttered threats and filthy language.

Lin Yin lost her patience completely. She had always loathed this kind of creature, and at this moment, she felt its very existence was a form of pollution. Without any warning, she released the bowstring.

A cold moonbeam flashed by, like a shooting star streaking across the night sky, swift and lethal.

"Pfft!"

The arrow accurately pierced into Carlo's wide-open mouth, exited through the back of its head, and pinned its unfinished filth and dirty soul to the tree trunk. Its yellowish, murky eyes instantly lost their luster, frozen in final shock and disbelief.

Lin Yin put away her bow, as if she had only done a trivial thing, and turned to Lin Yan, who had been as steady as a mountain and silent from start to finish. "It seems we have encountered a native race tribe, and it's not small in scale. This is a potential threat; we must Inspect their true strength."

There was not a ripple on Lin Yan's rock-like face; he simply nodded steadily, his voice low: "Safety first. Let's Inspect the situation clearly, and then report back to the Lord!" He rarely spoke much, but every word hit the key point.

The two reached a consensus, cleaned up the scene, and continued to lead the squad, carefully creeping forward.

After stealthily advancing about four kilometers, the entrance to a hidden valley appeared before them, and the sound of noisy commotion could be heard faintly.

Lin Yin signaled for Lin Yan to lead the squad and hide in the periphery to provide support, while she herself, like a wisp of smoke under the moon, silently glided up to a lush mountain col on the side, lowered her body, and looked down through the gaps in the leaves.

The scene made her frown.

Below was a natural valley of about four or five thousand square meters, roughly enclosed by a circle of crude stones.

Inside the valley, more than twenty crude arrow towers were built in a disorderly fashion, along with hundreds of tents patched together from animal hides or tattered cloth, most of them filthy and emitting suspicious grey smoke.

A large number of short, green-skinned figures were weaving through them, arguing, or sitting around campfires, gnawing on bloody chunks of meat. The air was filled with a foul stench, a mix of musk, decay, and smoke.

In the center, a tent that was significantly larger and covered with relatively intact animal hides stood out; it covered nearly a hundred square meters, and a tattered flag with an ugly fang pattern drawn on it was stuck crookedly at the entrance. This must be the residence of the leader, "Gluck."

Lin Yin calmly estimated. The number was indeed as the dead Goblin had said, around 1,500.

But upon closer observation, the vast majority of Goblins were thin and small, their movements disorderly, their aura weak, mostly around 5 or 6-star black iron level, like a disorganized rabble.

Only about a hundred or so Goblins appeared exceptionally strong with slightly better equipment, their auras reaching high-level black iron or even early-stage bronze. They usually drove the more numerous ordinary Goblins and were likely small chieftains.

And near the central large tent, she sensed a relatively powerful aura, around 3-star Bronze level, which should be the leader, Gluck.

"Although they are numerous, their discipline is lax, individual strength is generally low, and their high-tier combat power is limited." Lin Yin quickly evaluated in her mind, "With our army's current strength, especially the powerful forces the Lord recruited today, it will not be difficult to crush them in a head-on battle."

Keeping Lin Tian's order to "Inspect cautiously" in mind, she did not alert the enemy and quietly retreated. After reuniting with Lin Yan, she led the squad back to the territory while clearing out any contaminated monsters encountered on the way back.