Chapter 8: A Tribe's Calamity

  Sunlight filters through the layered leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground. Although it's not the scorching season, the forest still feels somewhat stifling. The air seems to be stagnant, making one feel irritable in their heart. Occasionally, a gentle breeze blows by, and it's as if the divine has bestowed a blessing, dispelling all discomfort.

  In this warm and cozy atmosphere, the Goblin tribe also has a quiet and peaceful feeling. The green-skinned goblins are drowsy, some even lie down directly. After eating their fill, the Goblins have no more desires. Moreover, there is still a deer in the tribe, and they already have food for the next meal, what else is there to worry about? Sleep, only fools do other things.

  A stone fell from the sky and landed on an empty space in the tribe.

  The goblins around immediately became tense, sat up and looked around. After a while, seeing no one or animal, nor anything new happening, they lay down one after another and continued to doze.

  Another stone fell from the sky.

  The goblins straightened up and sat up. Still a calm atmosphere.

  Go to sleep then.

  Another rock.

  The goblin sprang up, letting out an angry hiss. Looking around, it was still quiet. But this time everyone wasn't going to lie down again, as the last time had been too much of a test for their abdominal muscles. The leader of the goblins took a step forward from the crowd - human-like creatures, that is - and cautiously looked left and right, sniffing twice with its nose, seemingly searching for an unfamiliar scent.

  A gentle breeze blew by, driving away the heat and bringing news.

  The goblin leader looked puzzled in the direction of the wind, which was a thicket. He turned around and nodded to five tribesmen, drew his weapon, and slowly approached the thicket.

  The shrubs were quiet, swaying gently in the wind, and then stopping as suddenly. The goblin squad had approached, but the shrubs remained still, as if there was nothing behind them.

  The leader walked up close, hesitated for a moment, and then cut down with one knife. The five younger brothers behind him also charged through the bushes at the same time, holding their weapons.

  After a blade of grass flew by, they found nothing.

  The leader looked around, raised his head, sniffed repeatedly with his nose, and started smelling again.

  Nothing was smelled out. Goblins are not dogs after all.

  The leader was somewhat disappointed, put away his weapon, raised a hand and led a group of younger brothers towards the tribe.

  Sudden change occurred.

  There was a tree on the edge of the bush, with dense branches and leaves. At this time, a person jumped out from among the leaves, holding a long sword in both hands, taking advantage of the momentum to slash fiercely, and with one sword, a hapless goblin was cut in half. It was Joanie.

  Needless to say, those three stones just now were also thrown by him.

  Joni had originally intended to use harassment tactics to enrage the goblins, and then when they discovered where the stones were coming from, they would come over to investigate, and... who knew that the goblins had such broad hearts, took a look and saw nothing was wrong, lay down and went to sleep. Fortunately, their sense of smell was good, otherwise Joni could only think of other ideas.

  At this time, Jony jumped down and cut off the goblin's body, rolled to the side, took advantage of the momentum to pull out the long sword stuck in the bone, but unexpectedly brought the corpse over. So he quickly got up, stepped on the remains, and pulled out the sword with force.

  The goblin leader and his minions heard the commotion, turned their heads to look back, and saw Johnny stepping on a corpse to pull out his sword. They were stunned for a moment, seemingly wondering where this person came from. Johnny looked up, saw the goblins staring at him in a daze, smiled, and then turned around to run away.

  Run! Chase!

  Goblins can't outrun Johnny, just like Johnny can't outrun Liu Xiang.

  Can't catch up, then don't chase. The goblins returned to the edge of the tribe's settlement, dragged the corpse back to the tribe, and placed it next to the dead deer, stripping the poor thing clean. Then they came into the crowd, sat down with a thud, took a few deep breaths, and fell asleep.

  Joni slowly followed, hiding behind a bush. Seeing the goblins treat their companion's corpse in such a way, he couldn't help but feel nauseous - it seemed they were being used as food reserves. Cannibalism, truly an uncivilized and barbaric race.

  At this time, the tribe was lying down again, making Johnny cry and laugh. Since the goblin was so cooperative, he didn't hold back either. He looked at the cloth bag that held the bones yesterday, which still had a lot of stones inside, and climbed up the tree again.

  A stone fell into the tribal camp.

  The goblins lifted their heads and ignored them.

  Another piece.

  This time he didn't even lift his head.

  Bang! Ah!

  Unbiased and impartial, the stone hit the leader's head.

  Can't even let people sleep! The chief was furious, he roared loudly, waking up the entire tribe. Everyone drew their weapons and looked around, trying to find that despicable bastard.

  Jony, the ringleader, was also sweating bullets in the tree at this time. Although he really wanted to aim for some, but so accurate, it was really unexpected.

  What's even more unexpected is that the goblin was so stupid and didn't even know where it was.

  It can't go on like this, the leader decided to thoroughly resolve the issue. He talked a lot of nonsense, pointed out two people, and then led the remaining tribesmen - to sleep.

  Joni's face was lined with worry.

  Do you think having sentinels can ensure safety?

  Bang.

  Two sentries noticed the trajectory of the falling stone and pointed towards Johnny, shouting loudly as they charged forward with their weapons. Some tribesmen behind them got up, shook their heads, and followed suit.

  Getting closer, getting closer. Johnny resorts to his old trick again, same slash, same roll, trample and pull out the sword. Then taking advantage of the goblins still being some distance away, he takes off in a sprint.

  Chased away for a while, the goblins naturally returned empty-handed. Dragging back the corpses, everyone had lost their desire to sleep. One by one, they stared blankly at each other, at a loss for what to do.

  Joni's back. This time he didn't climb the tree - last time he fell from the sky, no goblins saw him, so he can try again. Just now that was in broad daylight, even a stupid goblin should know better, if they surround this tree later...

  He stood up straight and threw out a big stone, hitting an unlucky egg with a cracking sound.

  Pursue, run, return without success.

  After repeating twice, this group of goblins was a bit collapsed. The third time, the leader only pointed out five subordinates to chase, and the rest stayed on the spot to rest. After the five subordinates returned in disappointment, the leader suddenly felt that this was not a bad idea.

  Then five people, four people, three people... continuously reducing the number of people driving the team, finally settled on a scale of three people.

  The leader wanted to reduce, but those two goblins said that they would absolutely not go out without three people together.

  Three is just three.

  I can finally sleep soundly now.

  Rocks are flying over, nobody thinks it's a big deal, only the unlucky ones get hurt, others just keep sleeping.

  Three goblins chased after him.

  Never came back again.

  Jony is back.

  One, two, and when the third stone came flying in, the leader woke up dazedly, feeling that something was off. He sat up, saw Joanie smiling and waving her hand, then threw a flying stone, somewhat angry. Where are those three guys? Slacking off? You, you, you, don't sleep, chase him away.

  Three more goblins chased after him.

  Gone forever.

  At least I slept soundly.

  When everyone woke up from their nap, they found that some people were missing and immediately panicked. The small tribe of less than twenty people had lost two members and six others were missing, how could they survive? The leader was worried, his subordinates were also worried. They didn't even think about eating dinner, all they did was worry and fear.

  What a disaster.

  The fate of the tribe was of no concern to Johnny. He was busy disposing of the bodies in a clearing some distance from the village.

  Three goblins were still easy to handle for him. The goblin's weapon was no good, the strength was not enough, and the only thing they relied on was their numbers. You cut me once, I cut you once, and we can always give each other some damage. After a few more times, the opponent will fall.

  Joni's armor was a big help. The iron sword chopped, and it was hard to leave even an imprint - though this had a lot to do with the goblins not knowing how to maintain their weapons.

  He pulled out a saw and Joni began to collect the skull caps. Yesterday's vomiting was profuse, but today he felt somewhat used to it. It's just a bowl of pig brain, what's there to fear? Not disgusting at all.

  He muttered to himself, after taking down the bones, he still desperately shook, scraped and smashed, making those disgusting and frightening brain pulp and scalp clean before putting them into a cloth bag.

  At least I didn't throw up, which is a big step forward.

  Yesterday there were six corpses, one was smashed to pieces and only five skulls remained. Today it's enough to cut off four heads. Having made up the number, Johnny didn't even bother to collect anything for himself, threw away a bunch of mutilated bodies, identified the direction and headed towards Tabriz city.

  These two silver coins were really hard to earn, he thought bitterly.