Goblin Dependency

River Valley Town, White Sparrow Tavern.

The sticky, mixed din intermingled with the clink of glasses, blurring the line between day and night amidst the rich aroma of wine thick enough to almost congeal in the air.

The grief of losing teammates, the thrill of scavenging in the goblin nest, the excitement of a breakthrough in Battle Skill proficiency...

These complex and lengthy emotions enveloped the little tavern in this borderland, just like the mellow wine sliding down the throat, catalyzing the deepest desires from within.

"Madi, it's really been hard to earn money these past two years!"

"I remember when I first started, my brother took me along, and with just one task a month, I earned so many silver coins they couldn't even fit in a bag. The rest of the time, I could lie on the bed and play around, it was so comfortable."

"Look at now, just this one set meal can't even feed Little Jack, and they charge me two whole silver coins."

"If you want to rob, just take it directly from my pocket, why go to the trouble!"

A scruffy, simply dressed man in worn leather armor, sitting at a small table near the tavern's entrance, complained with a face full of alcohol fumes.

On the table in front of him, it was almost filled with empty bottles, and only through the gaps could one barely see the empty plates underneath, with food residue left on them.

"Can't you see what kind of place this is?"

"If you want cheap drinks, just pick any pub on another street in town, one Gold Coin will get you drunk to death, and no one will care."

"Why come to White Sparrow?"

A fellow adventurer nearby picked up the conversation, refuting him.

"Other places... hic..." The drunk squinted his eyes, his cheeks already flushed red from the alcohol fumes, "Drinking there is no fun!"

Glancing at his incoherent, stuttering state.

The adventurer sitting next to him seemed to have some thoughts, probing with a hint of curiosity:

"What about your brother? Didn't you say you were living well with him, how come you're working alone now?"

"Dead." The drunk's face showed no obvious expression, as if all the emotions that should have been displayed were numbed by the alcohol on his stiff face.

"When clearing the cave, hic... unluckily, encountered a Bear Goblin."

"One smash, brains everywhere."

As he spoke, the drunk picked up a bottle and gestured in the air towards the other.

"Didn't you save up some money during the last Hunting Day?" The acquaintance continued to ask, instinctively glancing at the other's somewhat empty waist pouch.

"Wasn't I recovering from injuries? Haven't gone out for nearly a month."

"By the time I planned to find work, Hunting Day was almost over, couldn't find a single goblin in the forest, only other more dangerous demons."

"Barely got through until now, didn't even have time to take on a few more tasks, and then this happened."

"Really damn unlucky!"

Hearing the other's complaints, the acquaintance took the opportunity to move slightly closer to him.

Half disguised, half empathetically sighed:

"Ah, Mist Forest, always causing trouble every now and then, aren't you used to it by now?"

"Lately it's actually been okay, just a bunch of beasts appearing out of nowhere, pay a bit of attention and it's manageable."

"Earlier in the year, so many venomous snakes and scorpions in the forest, thick as could be, almost every bush had them, remember?"

While talking, his left hand quietly reached towards the drunk's waist, covered by the wooden table above.

The technique was quite skilled, clearly, this was not the first or second time he had done such a thing.

Palm down, fingers slightly apart, in a blink of an eye, his hand had brushed over the drunk's waist pouch.

When he withdrew his hand, there were already two dazzling Gold Coins wedged between the fingers of his index, middle, and ring fingers, refracting the light.

He flipped his wrist, naturally slipping the coins into his pocket as if they were truly his.

Meanwhile, the drunken customer remained immersed in the previous topic.

"Something wrong with the forest outskirts, hic... definitely due to the inner area."

"Recently so many beasts appeared, I reckon there's a high-level demon going berserk inside, scaring all the animals out."

Having gotten what he came for, the acquaintance had no more interest in idle chatter, simply dismissing him with a few words.

"The inner forest, nothing to do with us, let the professionals in town handle it."

"One or two days, wait a bit, earn a bit less money, doesn't matter."

Saying this, he stood up and walked towards the tavern door.

Behind him, the sound of bottles falling to the ground, and the drunk's mumbling gradually trailing off as he succumbed to drowsiness.

At this moment, the acquaintance's face could no longer hide his joy, a triumphant smile appeared on his lips.

He mused to himself, tonight he could directly call two... no, three curvy women!

After all, it wasn't his money, so spending it...

"Creak."

The grating noise of hinges interrupted his thoughts.

In front of him, the tavern door was slowly pushed open.

The cold sunlight unique to winter, mixed with the chilling wind seeping into the pores, roared through the crack in the door.

Backlit, what entered his sight was a young man with a cold and stern aura.

Metal plates and buckles gently clashed, the matte surface of the gray-black Plate Chain Composite Armor was coated with a layer of faintly glowing cold hardness in the light;

Dull gray bone plates, secured with rivets and ropes, protected the shins and thighs like armor, the smooth, natural lines seemed to extend from the Iron Armor above.