Chapter 384 A Job the Vast Majority Should Never Attempt

The texture and taste of the wild boar meat were just as disappointing as expected.

Even though Xia Nan had done his best to follow the techniques he had picked up from the White Chickadee Tavern's kitchen—carefully trimming away the subcutaneous fat and glands, and properly bleeding the carcass during the slaughter—the large slab of cooked wild boar on the table before him, which looked quite presentable, still failed to satisfy his taste buds. His palate's threshold had simply been raised too high by the countless delicacies he had enjoyed in his past life.

The meat was tough and dry, containing very little fat. Biting into it felt like chewing on tree bark. It also carried an indescribable gamey, earthy stench, a far cry from the delicious, carefully prepared dishes at the tavern.

It was only by relying on the anvil bee honey he carried with him and his Class Grade body's instinctive need for nutrition that Xia Nan—who was rather picky about his food—managed to endure the foul stench and force the honey-dipped meat down his throat.

He knew his culinary skills were only average, and he lacked the proper conditions out in the wild to perfectly process wild boar, so the results were never going to be great.

But...

If he could actually have something better, why would he choose this kind of ingredient?

It was a bit awkward to admit, but right now, on the thirty-fifth day since setting out from Rivervale Town and twenty days after leaving Sheep Horn Town...

To some extent, Xia Nan had truly entered a state of "wilderness survival."

Lacking any spatial storage items, he had exhausted his carried supplies and could only rely on hunting in the wild to fill his stomach.

Fortunately, his physical constitution—which far surpassed that of an ordinary person—and the various combat techniques at his disposal made dealing with the common beasts in the woods practically a complete mismatch.

Even if he didn't possess profound hunting skills, when he could spot distant prey through dense foliage and shrubs, move through the forest faster than a peregrine falcon in the sky, and instantly end a creature's life with a single punch...

His so-called "prey"... the moment he spotted it and decided to use it as an ingredient, it simply became "food."

Just how fully prepared Xia Nan was for this journey has already been mentioned, so there is no need to elaborate.

But regardless, this was indeed his first long journey since transmigrating to the Aifala Continent.

No matter how meticulously he planned, a journey of this length was bound to run into unexpected situations.

It could just be a Goblin Lair off his route that was too tempting to ignore;

Or it could be a waypoint village where he was supposed to take a short rest and restock his supplies, only to find upon arrival that it had been destroyed by some unknown monster.

When several of these unexpected events occurred simultaneously and converged together, it landed Xia Nan in his current predicament of "wilderness survival."

Fortunately, his thorough preparations before the trip still proved useful.

The extremely detailed backup rest nodes in his itinerary meant that even in this deep, uninhabited forest, when his original resupply plan failed due to a village's destruction, Xia Nan could still consult his map and find the nearest village to restock, rather than running around aimlessly.

This was exactly the reason he had come here.

Xia Nan didn't know the name of this village, which was marked on his map as nothing more than the tiniest speck representing a human settlement. He had no intention of staying here for long or forming deep connections with the locals.

He merely wanted to use reasonable methods—whether taking a small loss in gold coins or bartering—to trade for some supplies with the villagers and free himself from his "wilderness survival" state of travel.

If possible, he also wanted to gather some detailed information about the Southern Archipelagos to prepare for his upcoming plans.

Swallowing the last piece of wild boar from his plate, he gulped down some water to wash away the lingering gamey stench in his mouth.

Xia Nan looked toward the villagers standing before him, who were acting exceptionally nervous and reserved. His gaze paused briefly on a young boy whose face was filled with cautious curiosity, and he politely thanked them once again. "Thank you all for being willing to lend me your kitchen."

At the same time, he gently pushed the remaining wild boar leg and a few coins in their direction, gesturing for them to accept the small reward without worry.

"May I ask if the village chief... or the sheriff is currently in the village?" he asked.

"I have some matters to discuss with them. If you know where they are, please go and notify them."

"Or you can just tell me where they are, and I will go find them myself."

The one who replied was a somewhat tired-looking middle-aged man, likely the pillar of this household. "Of—of course you can, Lord Adventurer!"

Xia Nan didn't know any mind-reading, but his Perception attribute of 12 points meant that even without paying extra attention, he could achieve almost the same effect on these honest villagers, who were poor at hiding their emotions.

Almost the second the middle-aged man spoke, he sharply sensed the hidden motive behind his stuttered words.

"In a remote mountain village like ours, even merchant caravans rarely pass by. It is our honor to have an adventurer like you visit. I wonder if you might be interested in joining our..."

Xia Nan listened patiently as the man finished his entire speech. It wasn't until the middle-aged man finally concluded his clumsy pleasantries and extended a dinner invitation that Xia Nan waved his hand and politely declined.

He could tell that behind those pleasantries and the invitation, the man was hiding some other motive.

But since he didn't plan to stay here for long anyway, speaking plainly was better for everyone.

His gaze swept over the hatchet in the young man's hand and the pitchfork that had been placed back in the corner.

"If there's something on your mind, just say it," Xia Nan said bluntly. "I'll give you an answer based on the actual situation."

"..."

After the middle-aged man led Xia Nan to the village chief's residence, and after several people offered extremely cautious explanations and requests—terrified of angering him—he finally understood what this small village was going through.

—A medium-sized goblin tribe with a population of at least fifty, suspected of harboring an elite chieftain subspecies.

They had even been pushed to the point of planning to send the village's youth far away, leaving the remaining villagers to make a final stand against the goblins.

Of course, it was impossible, nor did they dare, to use his resupply needs as leverage to demand that Xia Nan help them solve their problem.

Almost the very second Xia Nan told the village chief he wanted to trade for supplies, the chief arranged for the villagers to handle it without asking for anything in return.

Then, with absolute sincerity and earnestness, they offered the greatest reward their entire village could muster and begged Xia Nan for his help.

He briefly weighed the small cloth bag handed to him personally by the village chief. It contained coins, but it felt rather light.

He glanced at the sparse furnishings in the room, his mind subconsciously recalling the solemn, dilapidated houses he had seen along the way and the suppressed emotions on the villagers' faces.

After pondering for a moment, Xia Nan handed the coin purse back to the chief in front of everyone.

The village chief's expression involuntarily darkened, but he forced a smile and said carefully, "I was too abrupt, Lord Adventurer."

"Please rest assured, the supplies you need will be ready by tomorrow..."

He only got halfway through his sentence before Xia Nan interrupted him.

"How much do you know about the exact location of that Goblin Lair?"

"Take me there tomorrow morning to check out the situation."

"Consider it... the payment for those supplies."

...

...

Xia Nan didn't consider himself a particularly kindhearted person, and he would never risk his own life for strangers.

If the threat to this village had been a powerful, high-level necromancer, or perhaps an adult dragon, then no matter how sincere the village chief's attitude was, his only option would have been to turn around and leave.

But when the chief explained that the danger the village faced was a goblin tribe...

To Xia Nan, the nature of the matter completely changed.

Aside from it being a "commission," it also added a few... well, a few hundred points of personal interest.

Walking all the way here from Sheep Horn Town, the number of Goblin Lairs he had wiped out just to relieve travel stress already exceeded the fingers on one hand.

Even if the village chief hadn't deliberately commissioned him and had just casually mentioned that there was a Goblin Lair nearby, he probably would have sneaked out to clear it in secret while the villagers were preparing his supplies, without needing to make it such a solemn affair.

As for the commission reward they had offered...

Xia Nan roughly estimated it to be around ten or twenty gold coins.

It wasn't a lot, but it wasn't a small amount either.

But considering the desperation of this impoverished village, which was many times more remote than Sheep Horn Town, this must have been everything they could scrape together.

With a net worth of over eight hundred gold coins, and clearing out goblins being something he would do in passing anyway, Xia Nan had decided not to take the extra payment and handed the coin purse back to him.

To put it bluntly, with the unique hobby he had developed, there were times when he felt extremely stressed where he might even be willing to pay his own money to buy the exact location of a Goblin Lair.

It really wasn't a big deal at all.

Early the next morning.

When Xia Nan finished organizing his gear and walked out of the clean house the village chief had specially prepared for him, two figures were already waiting by the door.

He recognized one of them. It was the skinny teenager from the family whose kitchen he had borrowed the previous evening, the one who had been exceptionally curious about him. Right now, the boy had a wooden bow slung across his back.

The other was much older, sporting a full beard with slightly graying sideburns. He wore practical, fitted clothing for easy movement, a hunting knife hung at his waist, and a longbow rested on his back.

"Hello, Lord Xia Nan."

Seeing Xia Nan walk out, the middle-aged man took the initiative to step forward and greet him. "I'm a hunter in the village. You can just call me John."

"This little guy is Colin, and he's my apprentice."

"I heard from him that you already met yesterday."

Xia Nan nodded slightly.

Perhaps worried that the black-haired youth in front of him might misunderstand something, John quickly explained, "Please rest assured, although Colin is young, he's already the best hunter in the village aside from me. You absolutely won't need to distract yourself to look after him later."

Xia Nan didn't harbor any of the thoughts the older man was worried about; he was merely a little surprised by Colin's overly youthful face.

There were no further pleasantries.

Exchanging information about the Goblin Lair with each other, the three of them walked toward the village entrance.

...

In the village chief's original plan, he had actually wanted to send out almost all the able-bodied men in the village to accompany Xia Nan and exterminate the Goblin Lair together.

But Xia Nan had vetoed the idea.

With his combat style and method of attack, when the enemies were green-skinned goblins, having more or fewer people on his side... made little difference.

In fact, if there were too many people on his side, he might even have to split his attention to support his teammates, unable to devote his full concentration to the battle.

With fewer people, even if they encountered an unexpected situation and needed to make a temporary retreat...

He could just grab one in each hand and use [Fang Hunt] to break out. It would be much easier overall.

Therefore, the village chief ultimately decided to have Hunter John, who knew the exact location of the Goblin Lair, accompany Xia Nan along with his capable assistant, Colin.

The dense forest was deathly silent. Aside from the chirping of insects and birds, there was only the rustle of boots stepping on decaying leaves.

Hunter John acted exceptionally cautious. His peculiar walking posture allowed every step to land precisely on the most stable ground, creating the least amount of noise. His steady eyes swept the surroundings like searchlights.

Colin was incredibly nervous. Both hands tightly gripped his wooden bow as he followed closely behind John, step by step, tense as a taut string. It was as if one could hear his violently pounding heartbeat through the air.

Xia Nan, on the other hand, although equally cautious and not careless in the slightest, had a noticeably more relaxed expression than the two in front of him.

The extra point of Perception added by the max-level [Gravity Etching] allowed him to clearly and meticulously detect any suspicious movements in the nearby area, even without any extra motions.

If an enemy truly launched an attack on them, Xia Nan would definitely be the first to notice.

During a brief rest midway, they set up traps in the surroundings.

Young Colin finally couldn't contain his curiosity and asked, "Mr. Xia Nan, have you... hunted many goblins?"

"Colin!" Seeming angry at the youth's reckless questioning, John glared at his apprentice and shouted in a low voice.

At the same time, he turned his head and apologized to Xia Nan.

Xia Nan waved his hand, signaling that it didn't matter.

Looking at Colin, who was shrinking his neck from the old hunter's reprimand, Xia Nan softly replied, "I've killed a few."

"You must be really strong." The youth's gaze swept over the fully armed adventurer before him. He licked his lips, trying hard to find a topic. "Just like... those heroes in the stories."

Sharply catching the reverence and yearning in the young man's eyes, he understood what the boy meant.

Xia Nan raised his eyebrows slightly and shot him a glance.

Even though he had never liked lecturing others, he spoke a few more words this time. "Stories?"

"It's just a job."

"A dirty, dangerous job that the vast majority of people should never attempt unless they're driven into a corner."