Chapter 20 Garus's Fear (Seeking monthly votes and continued reading)

The Goblin tribe has a strict hierarchy, and every goblin knows his or her place, who is below him and who is above him.

Above all the goblins are two.

Broken Tooth Goruk, a goblin chieftain who can manipulate giant-armed miners, and Festering Groz, a shaman of the Rock-Eating Tribe and an alchemist who possesses sophisticated and magical alchemical magic in the eyes of other goblins.

At this time.

Broken Tooth Goruk was brutally impaling a goblin who had challenged his authority in the open ground of the tribe, then using a wooden frame to roast him over a campfire, and letting other goblins share the food.

The goblin leader was quite old.

Approaching 30 years old.

Goblins have a lifespan of about fifty years, but 30 years old is considered old age.

Survival in the wilderness is difficult, and the resources available to the Rock-Eating Tribe are limited. Very few goblins live to be over 30 years old; most die in their teens.

Generally speaking

Goblins of Goruk's age have been replaced by younger goblins.

However, through its cruel killings and its aging experience, it still firmly controls everything in the Rock-Eating Tribe and sits on the highest throne of power.

Only it can control the giant-armed miner.

This was something the Kenyan tribe had purchased from a passing caravan at great cost, after many of their members starved to death.

Giant-armed miner, humanoid alchemical golem.

Standing eight meters tall at the shoulder, with exposed seams of riveted steel plates, its style is rugged and primitive. Its massive arms are thick and long, and its shovel-shaped hands can reach directly to the ground, as if a gentle tap could shatter marble.

As its name suggests, it is an alchemical golem used for mining, but its size and weight also make it suitable for killing and fighting.

Sitting in the cockpit on the chest of the giant-armed miner.

Broken Tooth Goruk felt himself grow taller, looking down at the other tiny goblins. A wonderful feeling of being high above, able to decide the life and death of the other goblins at will, welled up within him.

Especially recently, it scared away the baby dragons.

This inflated Broken Tooth Goruk's vanity to the extreme, making him feel that dragons were nothing special, and that he would dare to hunt down even young or adult dragons if he had better alchemical golems.

"It's a pity that the baby dragon got away."

"If I can catch it, I can buy a better alchemical golem."

"I wonder if the wolf riders have tracked it down yet."

Broken-toothed Goruk thought to himself.

Suddenly, it seemed to see a dark shadow flash across the sky and disappear in an instant.

"What is that?"

Goruk was startled, but quickly calmed down. The black image was an illusion and had disappeared. The sky was as calm as ever.

at the same time.

Inside the alchemy workshop, an extremely ugly goblin was flipping through something.

Its grayish-green skin is covered with cracks, from which yellowish-green viscous fluid seeps out, emitting a pungent odor like a mixture of rotting flesh and sulfur. Dozens of fist-sized lumps protrude from its back, their surfaces transparent like pustules, filled with pus of different colors inside.

Pustular Groz, a shaman of the Rock-Eating Tribe.

It was engrossed in reading a thin booklet in its hand.

The booklet cover had a few words written on it.

[Beginner's Alchemy Handbook]

Groz found this alchemy manual, but unfortunately, due to his limited literacy and lack of guidance, he could only understand the illustrations. Over the years, he has been constantly exploring on his own, which has left him with many problems. However, by chance, he has also mastered some basic alchemical runes.

Groz always had a different feeling every time he flipped through the alchemy manual.

Unlike its ignorant tribesmen who were content with the present and lived a muddled life, it loved knowledge, research, and communication with other intelligent beings.

It thought it might be a genius.

If I hadn't been born in a small place like the Kenyan tribe, I would definitely have had a very long future.

Through some rare exchanges, it learned that beyond the wilderness there was a civilization called the Lorthen Federation, which contained a kingdom of goblins. It was said that the goblins there were wise and civilized, unlike the vulgar and ignorant goblins of the Rock-Eating Tribe, which it disliked. That was also the place it longed for.

After flipping through the alchemy manual for a while,

Groz slowly put it down and carefully stored it in a black wooden box to prevent damage.

Only then did it notice that the communication stone at its waist was glowing faintly.

Pick it up and hold it to your ear.

Groz's expression immediately changed, and because the change in expression was so drastic, many of the pustules on his face burst.

"A dragon! A powerful black and red baby dragon!"

"It is slaughtering us!"

It had just heard desperate shouts, wailing pleas for mercy, and the whooshing sound of dragon wings cutting through the air.

Beyond the sound, the message also contained a vague, general direction.

"A black and red baby dragon?"

Groz paced back and forth in the room, realizing the gravity of the situation—the wolf riders were likely wiped out.

"Tell Goruk the news, and we'll launch a surprise attack under the cover of night?"

That was Groz's initial thought.

But it was quickly rejected.

A young dragon capable of wiping out all the wolf riders and leaving none of them with a chance to escape is no ordinary creature. Even with the help of the goblins of the Rock-Eating Tribe and a giant-armed miner, it would be difficult to kill it through a sneak attack.

"We can't tell Goruuk the news. It's become too arrogant and foolish, and it's lost sight of its place."

"How about we sell the information to the caravan?"

Groz thought for a moment.

It has contact information with the caravan that originally purchased the giant arm miners.

Perhaps we could sell information about the baby dragon to a caravan and make some profit.

But that's a dragon.

The dragon symbolizes wealth and the hope of escaping the wilderness.

Groz pondered deeply and finally decided to send some goblins skilled in reconnaissance to check the situation. They would hunt the young dragons at any cost if there was even the slightest chance. If all else failed, they would notify the caravan and sell their information.

But just as Groz was thinking this...

Suddenly, a commotion of shouts and screams erupted outside.

Immediately afterwards.

Crash! With a deafening roar, the ground shook violently, as if a meteorite had fallen from the sky, and many cracks and fissures appeared under Groz's feet.

It lost its footing, stumbled back a few steps, and fell to the ground.

"what happened?"

Groz was terrified. He stood up and ran out of the alchemy workshop.

The moment he pushed open the door, his vision was filled with smoke and fire. A black and red afterimage flashed through the smoke and dust, and Groz's pupils finally caught sight of the source of the disaster.

It was an unknown dragon covered in black, steel-like scales with dark red, lava-like patterns flowing across them.

It was slowly standing up, its thick limbs bearing a ring-shaped crater from being smashed, inside which lay some corpses crushed into a bloody pulp.

A pair of enormous wings, covered with feather-like scales and with blade-like edges, spread out.

With a gentle swipe, he sliced ​​several goblins who had no time to dodge in half, their leather armor as fragile as paper.

It was Galus.

He still came.

Originally, Garros thought that a goblin tribe that even Samantha couldn't capture shouldn't pose a threat to him and he didn't need to worry about it. But then he thought again and realized that he might have been a bit arrogant and shouldn't underestimate them.

Arrogance is the biggest factor that killed dragons, bar none.

Galos thought that goblins are intelligent beings, not monsters or ferocious beasts. The fact that there are alchemical golems in the tribe means that they have likely been in contact with the outside world and may have channels to communicate with other intelligent beings.

Thinking about it that way...

Galus, who cherished his life, was a little scared. He didn't want to give up Hemlock Hills, but he also didn't want to encounter an unexpected attack.

This fear.

Galos wanted to eliminate the factors that frightened him beforehand to put his mind at ease.

(End of this chapter)