Chapter 644 Faint Envy, Boiling Current

The situation in the clearing was perfectly obvious.

Judging by the location provided by the hunter, Old Sonny, and the traces of combat left in the woods, the answer was clear.

The group was standing in the exact spot where the nearly annihilated Adventurer Squad had been attacked by the banshee.

The faint traces of five bodies being dragged away, which Xia Nan caught with his Perception, proved this point.

He guessed that the bodies of those adventurers had been dragged back to their nest by a group of passing goblins.

As for the Green-Skinned Goblins scattered around the site, their corpses bore obvious wounds from a banshee's attack. They had frozen solid as popsicles, but a careful examination revealed they had died within the last two days.

They had nothing to do with the Adventurer Squad attacked half a month ago.

To some extent, this also meant that the banshee Xia Nan and the others were tracking was nearby!

"Prepare for battle!" Uriah, the Bard acting as their temporary leader, called out in a low voice.

Their bodies, already slightly stiff from the discovery of the goblin corpses, fully tensed up at this moment.

Even the half-orc Gank, who had just been arguing with him, instinctively stepped up to his proper position at the front of the formation. The muscles in his arms swelled and bulged as he tightly gripped his Heavy Hammer.

To some degree, this was why half-orcs—despite the vast majority of them being impulsive, quick-tempered, dim-witted, and recklessly straightforward—still appeared so frequently in Adventurer Squads of all grades.

When danger descended and teamwork was required, these mixed-bloods were truly willing to stand at the very front and fulfill their responsibilities as frontline Warriors.

Often, in some lower-tier Adventurer Squads, the rest of the members would flee before the battle even began, leaving only their half-orc teammate behind to stall the enemy.

Of course, this certainly wasn't because half-orcs were exceptionally selfless or eager to sacrifice themselves.

It was merely because, driven by their bloodline instincts, they threw themselves completely into the fight, leaving them no attention to spare for anything else.

They wouldn't even notice that their teammates had already run away.

Or perhaps, like a machine that couldn't be stopped once fully started, even if they witnessed the shameless flight of their comrades, they would continue to fight uncontrollably, driven by the instinct of their boiling blood and Rage.

"Roar—" Gank let out a low, threatening growl, his round eyes fixed intently on the direction pointed out by the Rogue, Treebrook.

The group formed up in their combat formation and waited in place for a short while, fully prepared for battle.

Seeing no unusual movement in the surroundings, Uriah hesitated before finally directing the team to approach their target.

Their marching speed was much slower than before. It felt as if the thick fog in the air—which had previously been dispersed by their moving bodies—was now invisibly growing more viscous and heavy, clinging and coiling around them.

Bursts of bone-piercing cold seeped through the gaps in their armor and drilled into their clothes, causing Xia Nan to frown slightly.

The fog in the air around the Rime Hills seemed to contain faint magical particles.

This not only made the mist thicker and heavier, but also added a bizarre chill capable of affecting even the bodies of Class Level adventurers.

Fortunately, his current physical Constitution far exceeded what his Class Level should possess. Enveloped in the cold, he merely felt a bit chilly and didn't suffer any obvious negative effects.

On the other hand, Uriah, being a Bard, shuddered violently in discomfort a few times, goosebumps rising on his exposed skin.

"It should be here," Treebrook called out softly to her teammates. The half-elf, possessing unique tracking skills, had adjusted her position behind Gank since she was responsible for leading the way. She tightly gripped her twin daggers, which were already coated in poison.

Appearing before everyone was a cave roughly three meters in diameter, looking quite spacious from the outside.

It wasn't hard to identify what it belonged to.

The scattered corpse fragments in the surrounding woods, the incredibly dense mess of small footprints on the ground, and the waves of stench wafting from the depths of the cave—

Xia Nan didn't even need to think twice.

His rich experience accumulated from countless sweeps had already allowed his intuition to make an absolutely accurate judgment.

This was a medium-sized Goblin Lair with a population of twenty to forty, led by an elite Bugbear chieftain.

As experienced adventurers, they might not have been able to make as precise a judgment as Xia Nan, but they could still identify what the cave belonged to.

For a moment, all eyes turned to Treebrook, who was in charge of leading the way.

This caused a ripple of emotion to show on the half-elf's face, a woman who usually suppressed her outward feelings like a shadow.

In the end, it was Gank who spoke up, complaining in a manner very fitting to his character: "Pointy ears, did you track the wrong thing? Our target is that banshee. It has nothing to do with goblins, and we don't need to find the bodies of those fellow adventurers either."

"No, no." Treebrook was also slightly confused at first, but after closing her eyes and confirming again, she shook her head with certainty, denying the half-orc's complaint. "I definitely tracked it right!"

"Hmm—then let's go inside and take a look first," Uriah, acting as the temporary leader, ultimately decided. "Don't get careless. Everyone prepare for battle!"

Hearing him say this, and considering there were no other clues besides the half-elf's tracking guidance, Gank curled his lip but still shifted his feet, taking the lead toward the cave entrance.

Following in the formation, Xia Nan's expression remained unchanged, but his heart rippled slightly.

Perhaps because he had cleared out far too many Goblin Lairs just like this one, he keenly sensed an indescribable strangeness at this moment.

He glanced at the people ahead. Seeing that the three members of the Sulfur Dragon Breath squad were already fully prepared for battle, he didn't need to give them any extra warnings.

He simply reached down and rubbed Fanny's wolf head by his feet, while signaling the Ranger Tal beside him to stick close and stay alert.

"Hiss! Gah!"

"Hiss-gah!!!"

The unique, shrill shrieks of goblins echoed one after another from deep underground.

Accompanying these agonized screams were the dull thuds of sharp weapons tearing through flesh, the piercing whistles of arrows cutting through the air, and the melodious, crisp tunes of a flute—

Snik! A sharp, grayish-black sword gleam flashed fleetingly through the dim underground cave.

An ugly goblin, its face still frozen in a mix of terror and excitement, collapsed weakly onto the ground under its own momentum. Its frail limbs, thin as dry twigs, twitched and flailed like cockroach legs.

Its head, however, had already flown high into the air.

Spraying fresh blood, it rolled across the ground like a rubber ball.

Sweeping an ostensibly calm gaze over the goblin corpses ahead to quell the lust for battle rising in his heart, Xia Nan took a deep breath.

The Rogue Treebrook's tracking ability really seemed to have found the wrong target.

After the party of five entered the underground lair, all that appeared before them was a single Bugbear and a few dozen Green-Skinned Goblins.

They didn't catch so much as a shadow of the expected banshee.

Despite this, Xia Nan remained vigilant.

The half-elf's tracking might have erred, but he absolutely trusted his own Perception—a sense far surpassing that of an ordinary adventurer, which had aided him countless times over the past two years.

Since his intuition told him there was danger here, Xia Nan trusted it completely.

Furthermore, he kept in mind that he was still a member of the team at the moment.

Even though his impression of the Sulfur Dragon Breath members wasn't great, upon noticing them let their guard down, Xia Nan took the initiative to warn them that the danger hadn't necessarily passed.

It was just that the others didn't seem to take his warning seriously.

"Hahaha, you damn green-skinned bugs, die!"

Boom! Bang! The heavy iron hammer left a trail of afterimages in the air, smashing goblins one by one into unrecognizable meat paste.

The half-orc Gank was covered in goblin blood and gore. He swung his iron hammer in wide, sweeping motions, roaring wildly.

It wasn't that he bore any particular hatred for the goblins; he simply relished this feeling of towering over weak creatures, controlling their lives, and exercising his superior power.

Not far behind him, the Bard Uriah didn't directly engage in the melee. Naturally, given the strength of these goblins, he didn't need to join the fray himself.

He just hung back in the rear, playing his Vertical Flute to cast supportive buffs on his teammates.

Meanwhile, the half-elf Treebrook turned into a faintly visible blur darting among the goblins. Every flash of the Short Daggers in her hands kicked up winds of blood and a rain of gore.

The suspected mistake in her tracking seemed to weigh heavily on the Rogue's mind, making her fight far more aggressively than usual.

A Warrior, a Bard, and a Rogue—the combat style of the three Sulfur Dragon Breath members actually had no flaws.

They even maintained a relatively stable formation.

Against enemies consisting of a few dozen Green-Skinned Goblins whose Challenge Rating didn't even reach 1, this could actually be considered playing it safe.

But through Xia Nan's keen Perception, he could faintly detect that when their anticipated enemy changed from a dangerous banshee to weak goblins, the slackness and carelessness they showed in battle proved they hadn't taken his warning to heart at all.

They were just temporary teammates anyway. By speaking up to warn them, Xia Nan had already fulfilled his duty.

If the ones slacking off right now were the Halfling Alton, or Lorraine, or Adeline, he might have tried to think of a way and taken other measures to put them on guard.

But with the target being the Sulfur Dragon Breath—warning them multiple times was already the height of benevolence and duty.

In contrast, the Winter Wolf Fanny went without saying.

With intelligence far surpassing that of ordinary monsters, her rapport with Xia Nan meant she acutely sensed his thoughts without him needing to explain the situation.

She didn't charge into the goblin horde to slaughter as she normally would, but merely prowled around Xia Nan's side.

Whenever the distance stretched even slightly, she would immediately rush back.

The bald Ranger Tal might not have grasped the exact situation on the field, nor did he know what hidden dangers lurked within.

But he had already witnessed Xia Nan's absurd combat prowess with his own eyes, and he had seen the young man's relationship with that unfathomable, mysterious Barbarian.

Since the mission began, he had firmly stood by Xia Nan's side.

Naturally, he wouldn't toss his warning to the back of his mind now.

Gripping his longbow, he cleverly hid behind Xia Nan, close to the cave entrance.

One could frequently see arrows flying through the cave to pin goblins to the ground.

The vast majority of Tal's attention was focused elsewhere, carefully staying alert for any threats that might arrive at any moment.

However, it had to be said.

Even though Xia Nan felt a faint disgust toward the three Sulfur Dragon Breath members for ignoring his warning, he wasn't slacking off in actual combat.

He understood creatures like goblins better than anyone. He had long since memorized exactly where a blade could slice in the smoothest, and which spot to pierce to maximize their agony.

It was just inconvenient to indulge his desires and vent his fire in front of everyone, so he had to continue suppressing himself, turning instead to maximizing his killing efficiency.

Even without using [Fang Hunt], just a few strikes of [Spinning Slash] allowed him to kill more goblins than the loud, boisterous half-orc Gank and the Rogue Treebrook combined.

"Roar!!!"

Nearby, the half-orc Gank was locked in a heated brawl with the cave's Bugbear.

Whether it was because he had suppressed himself too long in the village and on the road, facing an enemy far weaker than himself, this mixed-blood bastard—who shared the same green skin as the goblins—was now completely drunk on battle lust.

He actually tossed his Heavy Hammer aside, feigning heroism as he wrestled and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enraged Bugbear.

As a [Warrior], he inherently received bonuses to Strength and Constitution, and his Class Level of 3 made him exceptionally prominent in his dominant attributes.

Under the support of Uriah's flute, his fists rained down like a howling storm. After a few exchanges, the burly Bugbear steadily retreated. Its nose was shattered, its teeth were smashed, and its already ugly face was covered in blood.

"Hahaha, again! Again!"

Gank's excited roars echoed continuously between the stone walls of the cave.

Hearing this made Xia Nan feel a faint hint of envy, as he hadn't had the chance to enjoy a Green-Skinned Goblin ever since running into Forgan on the way to Bloodcast Keep.

He was just planning to find a chance to go out alone for an afternoon after this mission ended, tracking down a few Goblin Lairs to relieve his stress a little.

Suddenly!

Xia Nan's Perception, which had been pushed to its maximum ever since entering the Goblin Cave, faintly detected a fatal danger about to descend.

In an instant, it transformed into an indescribable, formless warning that erupted in his heart, forcing his body and mind into a highly focused state of combat.

He subconsciously grabbed Fanny's tail and yanked her back. The Winter Wolf by his feet had been noticeably a beat too slow, failing to sense the danger as she prepared to lunge at another goblin.

Xia Nan shouted a warning to everyone on the field, "Watch out!"

It happened at the exact same moment he opened his mouth to speak.

Whoosh! An eerie, freezing wind brushed past, and the thick, foggy air around them abruptly turned freezing cold.

From behind him, the [Azure Pine] wooden sword surged with a boiling, scorching current.