Free Web NovelChapter 13: Chapter 12: The Goblin’s Way of Hunting
"I feel like the situation is... okay."
Shire watched his subordinates finish the hunting drill and felt somewhat satisfied. After all, they had finally completed the entire process on their thirteenth try.
"There are still some problems. You lot pulling the ropes need to be faster." Shire walked over to coach them personally. "And you three, you’re the boars right now. You need to run faster."
He had divided his subordinates into four groups: the shouting drivers, the rope-trippers, the stone-throwing finishers, and the three stand-ins who played the role of the fleeing boars.
After scolding his subordinates one by one, Shire waved his hand. "Again."
The goblins, full of vigor, coordinated with each other and successfully drove the three "boars" into the small pit. The entire process was incredibly smooth.
’Yes, very good. A team with perfect chemistry. For these subordinates to have been so misused by the Bear Goblins... what a terrible waste.’
Shire shouted, "Let’s go! Time to hunt."
Once the real hunt began, Shire was about to lose his mind.
At the start, he had his subordinates painstakingly dig a pit nearly one and a half meters deep, and he even placed some tuberous fruits near the trap as bait.
According to the plan, the driving team just had to shout and advance to make the wild boars panic and run toward the trap, where they would step on the camouflaging grass and leaves and fall into the pit.
Once the boars fell into the pit, the kill team could throw stones to knock them unconscious.
To prevent the boars from scattering randomly, Shire had also specially arranged for two goblins to lie in ambush on the side, ready to pull a rope to startle them.
But now, the very first step had him laughing with rage.
Below the tree where he was hiding, a herd of wild boars was growing restless.
There were twelve boars in total: four adults and eight piglets.
A dozen or so meters away, a few goblins were banging the ground with clubs and yelling their heads off, but they wouldn’t advance. In fact, they looked ready to turn and run at any moment.
Shire remembered from a wilderness survival video he’d seen that wild boars have poor eyesight and can barely see anything beyond fifteen meters. In the wild, a lone boar is more dangerous than a herd. Lone boars are males and will attack proactively, while herds are usually sows with piglets that often choose to flee.
All they had to do was startle them into the trap, and the hunt would be a success.
But now, his subordinates were just making threats without getting any closer, perfectly embodying the attitude of, ’I’m technically working, but I’m not doing *that*.’
’Go on, what’s the point of just shouting? Go!’
Shire watched the standoff below and couldn’t help but sigh at the goblins’ cunning cowardice.
He took out his Hand Crossbow and fired an Arrow at the empty ground near the herd, hoping to startle the boars and make them turn and run into the trap.
With a TWANG, a Crossbow Arrow shot out and stuck in the ground in front of the herd.
The sudden appearance of the Arrow startled the lead boar. At that moment, the driving team was still giving their "performance" with great gusto. The large boar charged straight at them, and the goblins didn’t hesitate for a second. They turned and fled, moving twice as fast as Shire had demanded during their drills.
As the large boar charged, the rest of the herd started moving chaotically. Then, with a WHOOSH, a rope was yanked taut.
The rope made the few boars and piglets still in the original spot completely freak out, scattering and fleeing in the opposite direction.
’Not now with the rope, for fuck’s sake!’ Shire slapped his thigh. ’Their coordination is impeccable, just in all the wrong ways.’
In the original plan, they were supposed to pull the rope in coordination once the boars started moving.
But now that the herd was moving, they had diligently pulled the rope all the same.
The large boar that had charged out failed to catch the goblins. Hearing the piglets squealing wildly back here, it charged back.
By now, the two goblins who had pulled the rope had already scrambled up trees, terrified of being gored by the boar.
SWISH! The rope was pulled taut again, but it did nothing to stop the large boar’s momentum. With a BOOM, it snapped a twenty-centimeter-thick tree clean in half. The impact also made the boar lose its balance.
’Huh? Buck Teeth?’ Shire got a clear look at the goblin who had performed this meritorious deed. ’Isn’t he part of the kill team? When did he learn to pull ropes? He’s a real eager beaver, I’ll give him that.’
But then he realized the situation was bad. Buck Teeth was still struggling on the ground, but the boar behind him was already staggering back to its feet.
’My Rare Card!’
’What do I do?’ Shire quickly glanced around and suddenly saw Scarface squatting beside him.
The three of them had played the part of boars during the drills. For the real hunt, Shire had assigned them to the stone-throwing group, but it looked like there would be no stones thrown now.
"Down you go." Shire kicked Scarface right out of the tree.
Then, he issued a command in his mind: ’Grant the Blessing of the Evil God to Scarface.’
At the same time, he called up Scarface’s panel.
[Name: Scarface]
[Race: goblin]
[Danger Level: 3, Developing (0.7, a somewhat useful piece of trash)]
[personality: Greedy]
[Own State: Blessing of the Evil God (Positive)]
Shire let out a long breath. He had only wanted Scarface to draw the boar’s attack and buy some time. Granting the Ability was just a shot in the dark. Even though this guy was disloyal, he had performed the ankle-touching ceremony. He hadn’t expected it to actually work.
...
Scarface dazedly climbed up from the ground. One moment he was hiding safely in the tree, the next he was on the ground for reasons he couldn’t comprehend.
He rubbed his bruised body, looking left and right, and suddenly remembered what he was there for.
But the large boar was already staggering toward him in a charge.
Scarface was scared out of his wits, his mind instantly snapping to attention.
Just as the boar was about to hit him, he leaped to the side, nimbly dodging the attack.
At the same time, he swung the club in his hand down hard, knocking the boar over with a single blow.
Then he held his club, stared at his own hands in shock, and muttered to himself.
"I... I’ve gotten stronger! I can be the chief now."
...
"Red Eyes, stab the boar to death."
Shire retracted the Blessing of the Evil God and simultaneously bestowed it upon Red Eyes, then slid down the tree trunk.
"Time to die!" Red Eyes shouted, holding a Long Spear. With a PSH, he ran the boar clean through.
Shire ignored the boar thrashing on the ground and went to check on Buck Teeth’s injuries.
The powerful kinetic energy of the boar’s Charge had sent Buck Teeth flying. He was now covered in wounds, the most frightening of which was a large gash on his back.
Shire acted again without hesitation, bestowing the Blessing of the Evil God upon Buck Teeth.
Before long, the bleeding from Buck Teeth’s wounds was staunched. Shire had the other goblins find some styptic herbs; goblins had been knocking around the forest for years and knew which herbs were useful for what.
Seeing that Buck Teeth’s injuries were stabilizing, Shire walked over to the large boar.
Successfully hunting a boar weighing nearly 220 pounds made him not know whether to laugh or cry.
’This is the goblin way of hunting. When you make a plan, you have to account for their cunning, their stupidity, and their cowardice.’
A thought occurred to him, and he called up his panel, noticing a change: ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
[Available Ability: Basic Power]
[Basic Power: Slightly increases an individual’s strength. This effect does not stack with other strength-type abilities.]
’So this is what I got from killing the boar,’ Shire thought.
He then gave the command to bestow Basic Power on Red Eyes and checked Red Eyes’s panel.
[Name: Red Eyes]
[Race: goblin]
[Danger Level: 1, Insignificant]
[personality: Reckless]
[Own State: Basic Power (Positive)]
’Not bad. Now I have a capable subordinate of my own.’ Shire was very satisfied.
Just then, Scarface came before Shire, clutching his club, and stammered, "Me... me, chief."
Shire frowned at him and sneered. "Red Eyes, beat him up."
Then, ignoring Scarface, he walked directly toward the snapped little tree.
Red Eyes went up and kicked Scarface, sending him flying three meters.
Shire arrived at the toppled sapling. When the tree fell, a flash of light had caught his eye.
He crouched down and saw that the uprooted tree had pulled up a good deal of soil, revealing a piece of metal. That was what had reflected the light.
Shire picked up a branch and started digging around it. Before long, he had unearthed a Bone. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
"All of you, over here. Dig," he commanded.
After some time, the digging was complete. Shire could now see the full picture: a human skeleton lay exposed in the pit next to the tree. All other items had rotted away, except for two short swords that were still in good condition, with only a bit of rust.
"This was probably an Adventurer." Shire looked down at the human bones. "He left his life in the forest and became nutrients for a tree."
"The tree itself was a bit rotten, covered in vines and fungus. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have snapped so easily."
"Bury him again." After saying this, he began to inspect the short swords in his hands.
These were two short swords, each the length of an adult’s forearm. The blades were slightly curved, the handguards were shaped like bird wings and engraved with patterns, and the pommels each featured a lifelike eagle’s beak.
Shire was puzzled by their material, having survived so many years buried in the forest without rotting away.
[Item: Abbot’s Double Blade]
[Quality: refined]
[Use: Stabbing]
[Own State: Sharpness Blessing (Faded)]
[Note: I hope Lira and Luna can grow up strong and protect the ones they care about.]
’Refined quality weapons, and they’re enchanted?’ Shire looked the dual blades over. ’It’s just that the enchantment is almost completely faded.’
He tucked the dual blades into the back of his belt and ordered his subordinates to carry the boar back to the cave.
At the same time, he glanced at Scarface, who was kneeling nearby, and asked, "Red Eyes, what’s wrong with him?"
"He’s crying," said Red Eyes.
...
In the small clearing at the cave’s entrance, a dozen or so goblins were butchering the wild boar, using the dual blades Shire had found.
Following Shire’s orders, they chopped up about five kilograms of meat and threw it into a large cauldron. The rest of the meat was set aside at Shire’s request to be made into jerky during the night.
Meanwhile, Shire cut off a strip of meat and went to roast it over a fire he’d built to the side.
At the same time, he took a bag from Bai Mao and tossed several of its contents into the cauldron—fully yellow Mushrooms with red and blue spots on their caps, which he broke into pieces.
A few minutes later, Shire picked up the charred skewer of boar meat. He took a sniff, and a rank, gamy smell made his eyes widen.
In the end, he couldn’t muster the courage to try it. He threw the skewer on the ground and went to find some tubers for himself.
Bai Mao walked over, picked up the skewer, took a bite, and also spat it out on the ground. Then she ladled a bowl of meat soup from the cauldron and offered it to Shire. "Don’t eat that. It’s poison."
Shire looked at the skewer she was talking about, knowing in his heart that the boar meat, lacking fat, had been roasted until it was bitter and burnt. Even the goblins didn’t like to eat it that way.
He waved his hand at Bai Mao. "You guys eat."
Then he went to the side to silently wait for his subordinates to finish their midday meal.
’I hope these Mushrooms do the trick.’
