Chapter 431 Ritual Attempt

Northwest of Barracuda Bay.

A woodland underground lair.

"Scree!"

The piercing shriek of a Green-Skinned Goblin echoed through the cavernous underground lair.

Most of the time, people across the Aifala Continent loathed that sound.

To commoners with no real combat strength, a goblin's shriek meant impending disaster.

It meant destroyed crops, devoured livestock, and abducted loved ones...

These ugly, brutal, and lowly monsters were despised by all intelligent races.

Even ordinary adventurers with some degree of strength dreaded hearing the cries of these green-skinned rats on quests.

Driving the creatures away was one thing, but slipping up and being dragged back to a Goblin Lair...

An adventurer's physical constitution far exceeded a commoner's, which only meant they would feel the agony of torture far more sharply and for much longer.

To most people, goblins were more repulsive than cockroaches and rats.

The same held true for Xia Nan.

He might enjoy relieving stress by clearing out Goblin Caves, but it certainly wasn't out of any fondness for the creatures.

On the contrary, he abhorred these green-skinned goblins so intensely that he derived genuine pleasure from their miserable shrieks and deaths.

The scattered, gruesome corpses left behind in the Goblin Lair after his purges were proof of that.

"Scree!"

It was the same piercing goblin shriek.

But instead of its usual frenzied madness, this cry brimmed with profound fear and despair.

It even carried a faint hint of pleading.

However, its tiny brain—driven only by the urges to slaughter and breed—would probably never comprehend the situation.

Why were the companions who had bravely charged the intruder already corpses, while it, the cowardly one, had been saved for last?

The reason was actually quite simple.

The more it behaved like this, the more the black-haired young man standing before it enjoyed the experience.

Whoosh!

The surrounding air blurred slightly under the effect of gravity. Wrapped in [Heavy Tide], the blunt scabbard lightly tapped the goblin's chest.

Its emaciated body, covered in festering sores, seemed to be sucked into an invisible vortex. It instantly lost its center of gravity, falling into a state of "imbalance" as it staggered to the ground.

The wooden club it had used to attack had been tossed who-knew-where.

Its twig-like arms propped it against the ground as it gasped for air amid shrill wails, thick, foul-smelling drool dripping from its mouth.

Yet death did not descend.

By the time it recovered slightly from the dizziness of being off-balance, the black-haired adventurer was still standing quietly in front of it.

Its gaze subconsciously shifted upward—from the nightmarish leather boots stained with goblin blood and gore, to the bone-white, gleaming greaves, the belt hung with a dagger and pouches, the oval Arm Shield radiating a faint gloom, and finally...

...those pitch-black eyes shrouded in deep shadows. They were utterly calm, yet seemed to swirl with an inexplicable chill.

They locked eyes in silence.

The scrawny goblin couldn't help but shudder violently.

Wailing, it instinctively scrambled up and turned to flee. Even with nothing ahead but a thick, bare rock wall, it just wanted to get as far away as possible.

But its filthy little legs had barely taken a single step before a familiar sensation struck its back once more.

Its center of gravity spun out of control, and it plunged to the ground in an unbalanced heap.

This cycle repeated for who knew how long.

Even the sharp, miserable shrieks echoing in the air had grown hoarse and weak.

Its facial muscles twitched violently. The fear, panic, and pleading had vanished, leaving only the dead ash of profound despair.

After the scabbard tapped it one last time, the goblin completely lost the will to resist or flee.

It lay flat on its back against the ground carpeted in blood and minced flesh. Its lifeless eyes stared fixedly at the gray stone ceiling.

"Proficiency +1"

"[Heavy Tide] lv1: (86/100)"

"..."

Familiar translucent characters flashed before his eyes.

Xia Nan nodded slightly, thanking the green-skinned rat before him for making a final contribution with its minuscule, despicable life.

The straight sword [Ember Fall] was drawn.

A soft hum rang out.

The goblin lying in despair on the ground finally got its wish and lost its head.

Xia Nan, however, felt a hint of regret.

According to his own hands-on practice and anatomical research, creatures like goblins actually possessed tear ducts.

Strangely enough, he had never seen a single goblin cry.

It certainly wasn't because their entire race was made of "tough stuff." In his year or so of adventuring, he had encountered more than a few cowardly individuals begging for mercy.

Perhaps... their brains had gradually forgotten this bodily function over the course of evolution? Or was it that he killed them too quickly, or with methods so cruel that these vile pests were plunged into deeper despair before they even had time to wail in tears?

"Tsk."

Clicking his tongue, Xia Nan thought that the next time he cleared a Goblin Lair, he could be a little "gentler" and take it step by step.

Maybe he would make a surprising discovery.

He was a normal person, possessing the empathy of a human being.

Under normal circumstances, even when facing enemies who stood in his way, he rarely went out of his way to torture them; he usually just cleanly lopped off their heads and called it a day.

In his daily life, whether dealing with rookie adventurers whose strength was far inferior to his, or ordinary commoners not much stronger than goblins, the values he had cultivated in his past life allowed him to interact amiably and on near-equal terms.

Even when encountering vicious monsters during quests, he generally didn't drag things out, ending the battle quickly while ensuring his own safety.

But goblins were different.

These low-level monsters, originally on the brink of extinction, had undergone a biological shift after the return of their primary god.

They had completely degenerated into slaughtering machines driven by desire, harboring the purest malice toward all intelligent creatures.

Their way of survival and environment dictated it. Every single goblin capable of standing before Xia Nan had filthy, sinful blood flowing through its veins; even their breathing was a waste and a desecration of the world's air.

They were born with original sin.

They were worse than cockroaches and rats.

In Xia Nan's eyes, these ugly, dirty, despicable creatures weren't even "living beings" anymore—they were just "things."

As such, their lives naturally weren't something to be cherished. They were meaningless, something he could take at will.

He felt no notable emotional fluctuations.

He pulled a piece of gauze from his pouch, carefully wiped the straight sword [Ember Fall], and sheathed it.

His empty right hand brushed past his waist, and in the blink of an eye, he was holding a small, exquisite, gorgeous dagger that looked as if it were crafted from pink crystal.

Acquired from the battle with the crystal Cleric in Sheep Horn Town, this green-grade knife named [Honey Tangerine] didn't have much inherent use. However, its sharp, short blade and sturdy durability made it an excellent tool for harvesting monster materials.

He had owned it for dozens of days now, yet Xia Nan never grew tired of looking at its crystal-clear, beautiful appearance.

Reflecting the sunlight shining in from outside the cave, he admiringly played with it for a moment before shifting his attention back to the goblin corpse at his feet.

He squatted down. As if he knew every single bone and tendon inside a goblin intimately, the gorgeous short blade—reminiscent of pink glass—sliced smoothly with a deft technique that looked as though it had been repeated thousands of times.

In just a few seconds, Xia Nan extracted a pale spinal column, still traced with bloody veins, from the goblin's corpse.

[Gravity Control] silently took effect. The goblin's head, which had rolled away, was pulled upward by gravity and floated into his hand.

The dagger went back into its sheath.

He held the head in his left hand and the spinal column in his right.

Xia Nan turned around.

Coming into view was a small, preliminary skull pyramid piled up with goblin heads.

Drawing on the experience of his previous pile collapsing, he reached out and inserted the spinal column into the gap between the top four skulls to anchor them. Then, grabbing the final goblin head, he slid it down the end of the bone, letting the other tip of the spine pierce out through an eye socket. Only then was this "masterpiece" complete.

Limited by the size of this Goblin Lair, he had barely managed to stack four layers, and its total height didn't even reach his waist.

It did look quite intimidating, though.

But that was mostly thanks to the atmosphere of the cavern he was currently in.

The lighting was dim, the air reeked of blood, and the ground was covered in minced flesh and gore.

To suddenly catch sight of such a skull pyramid in an environment like this—if someone wasn't mentally prepared, they would definitely be startled.

But if it were placed outside in a well-lit forest or by the seaside, the effect certainly wouldn't be nearly as good.

Clearly, it was a far cry from the "grand deterrence ritual" required by the class advancement conditions.

However, he had only recently reached lv3. He was still two levels away from the bottleneck of the [Meteor Blade Hunter] class at lv5, so he wasn't in a hurry to take on a subclass and break the Class Level cap.

This was just an initial attempt.

There were many suitable choices, and he hadn't yet settled on his future development path.

'But...'

Xia Nan gazed at the skull pyramid he had painstakingly built, which wasn't even as tall as the Halfling Alton, and couldn't help but inwardly click his tongue.

'Just four layers, and it took a full thirty goblin heads.'

'If I want to produce a sufficient deterrence effect, it would have to be at least three stories high, right? How many skulls would that take?'

Moreover, while goblins were accustomed to moving in tribal groups, a lair basically only contained about twenty or thirty of them unless a Hobgoblin chief with strong enough leadership emerged.

Considering that the corpses would quickly rot and spoil, and that the deterrence effect of a clean, bare skull was nowhere near as strong as a head still bearing residual flesh and blood...

He had to gather thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, of heads in a very short period of time.

Where was he supposed to find that many goblin heads all at once?

And when the time came, stacking those round things up one by one would be an incredibly difficult task.

He pondered this in his mind, but even after thinking for a long time, he couldn't come up with a suitable method.

Glancing at the sky outside the cave, Xia Nan shook his head slightly.

The key right now was to first find the access key for the [Dream Weaving Corridor]. Then he could find an opportunity to go to the Secret Realm to replenish energy, raising his Class Level to lv5 as soon as possible.

As for the rest, he could figure it out slowly on the way.

Dispelling the stray thoughts from his mind, he walked to the corner of the cave. He took the goblin ears and part of the loot he had previously gathered, wrapped them in several layers of coarse cloth, and stuffed them into his backpack.

He turned and left the lair.

...

...

Barracuda Bay was as bustling as ever.

The Saltwater District near the port was just as prosperous and crowded.

Moving his feet, he squeezed through the crowd, deftly dodging a basin of foul water dumped out by a resident along the street.

Ignoring the curses between the resident and the drenched passerby behind him, Xia Nan turned and ducked into an adjacent alleyway.

He hadn't been here many times, and his memory wasn't particularly outstanding.

But he was a Class Grade adventurer, after all. It would be entirely too ridiculous if he managed to get lost in a place like this.

Still, it took him a little time, circling around a few crucial intersections.

Soon, a somewhat dilapidated general store came into view.

He glanced up at the sign reading [Salmon Roe] to confirm he hadn't gone to the wrong place.

Xia Nan raised his hand and pushed the door open.

"Ding-a-ling..."

The crisp ring of the bell echoed quietly through the air.

The overall environment hadn't changed much from before. The inside of the general store still retained that seemingly messy but actually neat and clean layout.

No one was at the counter, but the sound of two people talking faintly drifted out from the back room.

"We have a batch of goods to collect the day after tomorrow. You'll come run this errand with me. Look more, talk less. I'll take you through the collection process so you can get familiar with it and recognize the people."

"Once you're proficient, you can go out and run it yourself, saving me some effort."

"Understood, Uncle Paddy."

"..."

Hearing the sound of the door opening from outside, the noticeably younger voice hurriedly called out:

"Coming, coming!"

This was followed by a flurry of hasty footsteps.

The person who arrived was naturally Colin, who had parted ways with Xia Nan not long ago.

This pragmatic young man from a remote village had thoroughly recognized his own shortcomings after confirming he had no talent as an adventurer and lacked the courage needed for sea voyages.

Right now, he had returned to the general store run by his uncle, Paddy, and was patiently and steadily learning how to run a small business.

Compared to how he looked when he had just stepped off the Black Gull, he was now wearing a durable linen shirt common among the ordinary residents of the Saltwater District. His whole demeanor, however, looked significantly more spirited, as if he had found a path worth striving for.

Upon seeing the black-haired young man in front of the counter, Colin couldn't help but freeze for a moment. Then, a genuine, enthusiastic smile blossomed on his face.

"Mr. Xia Nan, what brings you here!?"

Paddy in the back room was slightly slower, but hearing his nephew's voice, he quickly picked up his pace.

Nodding in greeting to the equally enthusiastic Paddy, Xia Nan looked at Colin and reached for his waist pouch.

"I went for a stroll outside today and happened to stumble across a Goblin Lair," he replied. "My luck wasn't bad, and I picked up some loot."

He had always had a good impression of the two, and he didn't know many people in Barracuda Bay. Since he had just harvested some miscellaneous loot from the Goblin Lair, he naturally thought of coming over to give them his business.

But before he could take the loot out of his pouch, the sound of commotion and footsteps suddenly approached from outside the general store's door behind him.