Only ten meters separated the two sides, and Lucien was certain the monsters could hear him.
Nfirea stood beside the wagon, completely confused by what was happening.
He did not understand why Lucien had suddenly become so cautious right outside the village, much less why he was threatening to burn a wheat field that would be ready for harvest in another month.
He looked at the palisade directly ahead, then at the wheat swaying in the wind on both sides of the road.
He saw nothing unusual.
But Lucien’s expression was completely serious.
Having already witnessed how powerful his hired escort was, Nfirea did not dare question him and obediently remained where he was.
Lucien began counting the next number.
A faint flame appeared at his fingertips.
Of course, he had no intention of actually burning the crops.
The fire was merely meant to put enough pressure on the hidden creatures to make it clear that his threat was not empty.
The sight of actual flames proved far more persuasive than words.
Before Lucien could reach the final number, the wheat fields on both sides suddenly erupted with a dense rustling sound.
More than a dozen short figures rose simultaneously from the waist-high wheat.
Just as Lucien’s senses had detected, they were goblins.
These goblins were sturdily built and had fierce expressions.
Bundles of woven wheat had been attached to their bodies as camouflage, and they had dug shallow pits deep enough to conceal half their bodies.
Even from above, it would have been difficult to notice anything unusual.
Against ordinary humans, the ambush was nearly perfect.
It would have fooled the naked eyes of most merchants and adventurers.
But against Lucien’s various high-level perception skills, the camouflage was rather crude.
All the goblins rose at once with remarkably coordinated movements.
Each held a shortbow at full draw.
Every arrow was aimed at Lucien’s group.
“Who are you?” The goblin at the front shouted the question, its voice filled with suspicion.
Lucien glanced over their bows and immediately reached a conclusion.
They were ordinary weapons made from common wood and animal sinew.
They posed no threat to him.
Even if all of the goblins fired simultaneously, Lucien was confident he could knock every arrow aside before any of them reached him.
Even so, he hated the feeling of standing passively beneath a line of drawn bows.
Lucien shifted slightly, placing himself between Nfirea and the goblins.
“Get behind the wagon,” he said quietly.
Nfirea had already gone stiff.
Only now did he realize that Lucien stopping the wagon had probably saved his life.
At the warning, he hurried behind the carriage.
The two coachmen went even farther and crawled directly underneath it.
Once Lucien confirmed that his client had cover, he looked toward the goblin leader and attempted to reason with him.
“We came from E-Rantel.
The man behind me is Nfirea, an apothecary.” “We’re visiting Carne Village because we need somewhere to stay for a few days while gathering medicinal herbs in the forest.” “We have no hostile intentions.” The goblins remained extremely wary.
Their leader not only refused to lower his bow, but pulled the string even tighter.
“Don’t lie to us!
I could smell blood on you from a distance!
You definitely killed someone recently!” Lucien was certain there was no blood on his clothes.
Still, he might have stepped in some earlier without noticing.
There was no way to be sure.
Arguing about it probably would not help.
He sighed internally.
“I’ll say it again.
I’m not here to cause trouble.” “The blood came from wild monsters we killed on the road.” “Now I’m warning you.
Lower your weapons.” Lucien’s patience was gradually running out.
“Why should we believe you?” Lucien stopped talking.
He hated situations where communication went nowhere.
If reasoning was useless, then he would simply have to make them calm down through force.
Lucien vanished.
There was not even a rush of displaced air.
One of the goblins positioned farthest inside the formation, more than twenty meters away, saw only a blur.
The next instant, Lucien was standing in his original position again.
Except now there was a stunned goblin in his grasp.
Lucien held it firmly by the back of the neck with one hand.
His katana was already drawn, its cold edge pressed tightly against the creature’s throat.
The entire sequence had happened so quickly that the other goblins only understood what had occurred after Lucien was already back where he started.
They raised their bows higher in alarm, every arrow now aimed at the dangerous stranger before them.
“This is my second warning.” Lucien’s voice turned completely cold.
“Lower your weapons.” “There won’t be a third.” “Think carefully before you decide.” Lucien had assumed that if these goblins truly possessed advanced intelligence and social organization, witnessing such an overwhelming difference in strength would make them surrender immediately.
He was wrong.
The goblin held at knifepoint clenched its teeth and struggled violently in Lucien’s grip, trying to break free without the slightest concern for the blade against its throat.
It seemed completely unafraid of death.
The other goblins hesitated only slightly.
None lowered their bows.
If anything, several looked ready to fire even if doing so meant killing their captured companion.
The tension was reaching its breaking point.
Lucien was already considering whether he should simply wipe out this unusually organized group and continue the job when the heavy gate of Carne Village suddenly opened a crack.
A plainly dressed village girl cautiously stuck her head outside.
“What’s going on?
What happened…” Before she could finish, Nfirea burst out from behind the wagon as though he had just seen salvation itself.
“Enri!
It’s me!
Nfirea!” The girl froze.
Then she recognized him.
Her confusion immediately turned to delight, and she pulled the gate open before running toward them.
“Nfirea!
What are you doing here?” As she ran, Enri shouted toward the goblins.
“They’re my friends!
They’re not enemies!” The moment Enri gave her word, the goblins that had been prepared to fight to the death immediately lowered their bows.
They removed the arrows from the strings and returned them to their quivers.
Seeing that the situation had been resolved, Lucien loosened his grip and pushed the captive goblin back toward the others.
He sheathed his katana at the same time.
Enri had already reached Nfirea and pulled him into an embrace.
The two clearly knew each other well.
Lucien studied the young village woman.
Aside from being somewhat pretty, there was nothing particularly remarkable about her appearance.
That only made him more curious.
These goblins were obviously well trained.
Their individual combat ability was probably superior to that of E-Rantel’s elite soldiers, while their discipline and loyalty were astonishingly high.
More importantly, these were armed monsters with an unusually advanced level of intelligence for goblins.
Creatures like this should have been extremely rare.
So why did they obey a young village woman named Enri?
How exactly had she gained their loyalty?
Lucien did not ask immediately.
With the misunderstanding resolved, the group entered Carne Village without further trouble.
They ate lunch in the village.
The food consisted mostly of coarse grains, but it tasted decent enough.
Afterward, Nfirea spent some time talking with old acquaintances from the village.
Most of the conversation concerned ordinary family matters and local gossip.
Lucien had no interest in listening.
He wandered to the edge of the village, crouched beneath the shade of a large tree, and pulled a cigarette from his pocket.
He had barely taken two drags when soft footsteps approached from nearby.
The goblin leader from earlier came over and crouched about two meters away.
His manner was noticeably cautious.
“About what happened at the gate…” “We overreacted.” “I’m sorry.” The goblin lowered his head.
He sounded sincere, though there was still a trace of lingering fear in his voice.
“It’s fine.
You were doing your job.” Lucien smiled to show that he did not care.
The goblin leader looked up.
His curious gaze settled on the cigarette in Lucien’s mouth.
Lucien noticed.
He casually pulled another cigarette from the pack and raised an eyebrow as if asking whether the goblin wanted one.
The goblin hesitated before accepting it.
He copied Lucien and placed it between his lips.
Lucien snapped his fingers.
A tiny flame appeared at his fingertip.
He leaned over and lit the cigarette for him.
The goblin imitated Lucien and took a deep breath.
A second later, he started coughing violently like a teenager trying tobacco for the first time.
However, he did not experience the same dizzy rush a human novice might.
Tobacco harmed the body through mild poisoning, and a goblin’s resistance to abnormal conditions was clearly higher than a human’s.
He adapted quickly.
Then he attempted to introduce himself.
“My name’s Bruno.” “Lucien.” The shared cigarette reduced some of the distance between human and monster.
Bruno looked at Lucien with deep respect still visible in his eyes.
“Are you really just an escort?” “You disappeared in the blink of an eye, reached the back of our formation, grabbed one of my men, and returned before I could even see your shadow.” “Mhm.” Lucien continued smoking without answering directly.
Bruno swallowed nervously.
“If…” “I mean, if Miss Enri hadn’t come out and we’d actually fired…” “What would have happened?” Before Lucien could answer, Nfirea’s voice came from the distance.
“Mr.
Vale!
We’re finished eating!
We’re getting ready to head out and gather herbs!” “Coming!” Lucien called back.
Then he stood, dropped the nearly finished cigarette onto the ground, and crushed it beneath his boot.
He glanced down at Bruno with a faint, casual smile.
“It never happened.” “What’s the point of asking about something hypothetical?” With that, Lucien turned and walked toward the wagon.
Only after he had gone some distance did Bruno release a long breath.
He wiped the dense layer of cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
Every second spent close to that human had filled him with fear from somewhere deep within his instincts.
And in truth, he already knew the answer to his own question.
That human had not been bluffing.
If they had actually fired their arrows…
They probably would have all died in an instant.
They might not even have had enough time to scream.
The afternoon heat was oppressive.
After leaving Carne Village, Nfirea led Lucien deeper into the forest.
“The area we’re heading toward is near the edge of the Wise King of the Forest’s territory.” Nfirea explained as they walked.
“It’s an extremely powerful monster that rules the central part of this forest.” “Fortunately, it’s considered remarkably intelligent and almost never attacks humans without provocation.” “As long as we remain near the edge of its territory while gathering herbs and don’t provoke it, we usually won’t attract its attention.” Lucien nodded and committed the name Wise King of the Forest to memory.
So this forest contained a monster powerful enough to rule its own territory.
He wondered how strong it actually was.
Perhaps he could investigate it properly another time.
The journey soon became monotonous again.
Lucien walked at the rear of the group, staring up at the merciless sun overhead.
It was irritating.
He had no desire to spend the entire afternoon under that heat while simultaneously maintaining constant vigilance for wild monsters that might emerge at any moment.
So Lucien placed both hands behind his back and quietly traced a casting sequence with his fingers.
[Eighth Tier Magic: Stormfront] It was one of the spells available through his secondary Weather Mage class.
Back in YGGDRASIL, certain assassination targets had sometimes been protected by extremely elaborate defenses.
To create openings and distract them, Lucien had deliberately learned several forms of weather manipulation.
Tornadoes.
Sandstorms.
Thunderstorms.
Their main purpose had never been direct damage.
They created confusion and forced targets to divide their attention.
The effects were useless against most NPCs in the game, but during player-versus-player combat, even a momentary distraction could create an opening.
The spell activated.
The clear sky and blazing sun were rapidly swallowed by a layer of thick storm clouds.
Rumble.
Thunder rolled across the forest.
A cool breeze followed.
Stormfront worked perfectly.
It blocked the harsh sunlight and lowered the temperature.
The thunder also intimidated weaker monsters throughout the forest, driving them back toward their dens instead of allowing them to wander randomly through the area.
Best of all, the spell produced wind and thunder without actual rainfall.
It would not interfere with gathering herbs.
Still, Lucien did not want Nfirea or the coachmen walking ahead of him to become suspicious.
And since he was currently presenting himself as an ordinary light fighter, he needed to react to the sudden change in weather like one.
He retrieved several oilcloth rain capes from his inventory and hurried forward to distribute them.
“Looks like rain.” “Keep these ready just in case.” “You focus on gathering.
I’ll watch the surroundings.” Nfirea glanced at the suddenly darkened sky but did not think much of it.
He thanked Lucien, put on the rain cape, and returned his attention to gathering medicinal plants.
Meanwhile, as Lucien continued monitoring the surrounding area with his passive detection skills, deep within the forest…
Inside a dark cave, the sudden thunder shattered the silence.
The enormous creature sleeping in the shadows was abruptly disturbed.
It opened its large eyes and, still irritated from insufficient sleep, lazily scratched around one eyelid.
The thunder made returning to sleep impossible.
Eventually, the creature stood, shook out its thick fur, and decided to go outside in search of something to eat.
(To be continued.)