The 200-pound boar was swiftly processed by Ler and Rand's practiced hands.
Its innards were removed and buried in a small pit.
To Adam, this seemed wasteful. Neither the Rock team nor Nfirea's family showed interest in the organs.
Evidently, eating innards wasn't their custom.
Adam kept silent.
Despite their humble portrayal in the anime, adventurers and the Bareares, who owned an apothecary, were far from poor.
The cleaned boar meat was skewered over the campfire, sizzling as fat dripped, intensifying the flames.
A savory aroma filled the air.
Captain Dosari strolled over, sitting beside Adam, his tone jovial as he struck up a conversation.
Adam listened attentively, nodding or offering brief replies, letting Dosari dominate the talk.
Nfirea, equally engrossed, soaked up the adventurer's tales.
Though Dosari's stories, past adventures laced with some bravado, were partly boastful, Adam gleaned useful tidbits.
The next day, at dawn's first light, they set out.
The terrain grew rougher, especially as they neared the border. The towering, endless Angelica Mountains loomed into view.
The once-light mood turned somber.
Encounters with magical beasts increased, though most were weak.
Adam steadily amassed experience.
The Angelica Mountains separated the Re-Estize Kingdom from the Baharuth Empire, a natural barrier between the two.
Dosari mentioned that 400 years ago, they were one nation, split for reasons lost to time.
Suddenly...
"On guard!" Bask, the archer guarding the wagon's rear, called out. His ears twitched, his face grim. "Something big's coming!"
The Rock team tensed.
Lizzie, expressionless, yanked the reins, halting the wagon. Nfirea, nervous, gripped the wagon's railings.
Adam noted the team's reactions, his gaze sharpening.
From their time together, he knew Bask's superhuman hearing, his Talent, made him the team's scout as well as ranged attacker.
For Bask to be this alarmed, something formidable was near.
Still, Adam remained calm. The true powerhouse here wasn't the adventurers but Lizzie, the wagon's driver.
"Waa! Waa!"
"Waaa!!"
Shrill cries erupted as rustling came from the roadside grass.
Goblins, under a meter tall, with dark green skin, scrawny frames, white pupils, and feral faces, burst into view.
Ten of them.
Adam scanned the group. Most wielded crude wooden clubs. Numerous, but not a real threat.
Goblins were weak, fast-breeding, and dim-witted. A cautious adult could take one in a fair fight.
The Silver-rank Rock team, likely averaging levels 7–10, was overqualified.
Of course, goblin subspecies varied.
Was the real danger behind them?
Adam's eyes darted past the goblins to the dense forest beyond.
Thud!
Thud!
Heavy footsteps echoed, carrying a palpable menace compared to the goblins' chaotic yowling.
"Everyone, brace!" Dosari drew his twin swords, his voice a low growl.
"ARHHHHHHH!"
A beastly bellow followed.
A figure over two meters tall, burly and obese, with dark yellow skin and a spiky, armored back, lumbered out.
"An ogre? No, two!" Bask's face darkened.
"Waa! Waa!"
The ten goblins, initially hesitant, gained courage at the ogres' arrival, brandishing their clubs and charging the wagon.
"Take out the goblins first!" Dosari shouted, sprinting forward. He hurled his right-hand sword.
With a piercing whistle, it struck the lead goblin, the blade sinking precisely into its chest.
The goblin shrieked, pale green blood gushing from the wound, splattering the ground.
Dosari reached it, stomping its chest and yanking the sword free, blood and flesh spraying again.
His left sword swung, decapitating another goblin.
Simultaneously, Ler and Rand raised their silver shields, charging forward.
They bowled over a goblin each, then smashed their shields down, reducing them to pulp.
Compared to their brutal efficiency, Bask was graceful, nocking and loosing arrows with steady precision, felling two goblins.
In moments, six of the ten goblins were dead.
Adam watched, drawing a slow breath.
He wasn't nervous, just mildly nauseated by the gore.
They'd faced scattered magical beasts on the journey, so this wasn't new.
But as a modern man, the carnage unsettled him.
The air reeked of metallic blood.
Seeing a goblin's head fly and bodies crushed by shields, Adam felt the world's stark reality.
Beyond the nausea, a strange excitement stirred within him.
He suddenly understood the Eight Greed Kings, who'd once ravaged the continent.
While he was lost in thought, the Rock team dispatched the remaining four goblins.
The two massive ogres, roaring with fury, now charged from the forest.
***
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