Chapter 3: Tracking Down Goblins
The dense and lush Jade Forest, with towering giant trees, made it difficult for sunlight to penetrate.
The chilling atmosphere made Gauss shiver, always feeling a creepy chill behind him.
Compared to those ordinary bottom adventurers visiting the Jade Forest for the first time, Gauss actually had a natural advantage.
As a Hunter active on the outskirts of the Jade Forest, he was not completely ignorant of the environment here.
He had several familiar "hunting grounds" and had left some marks leading to these "hunting grounds" in various places in the forest.
Added to that, he also had the "map" guidance from the Adventurer’s Handbook, where every map traversed illuminated the surrounding environment.
This enabled him to avoid the first hidden danger faced by new bottom adventurers: getting lost.
Indeed, compared to monsters with real knives and guns, the vast and boundless forest itself was the potential crisis, with impenetrable trees and monotonous scenery, making it impossible for ordinary people to determine their position within, let alone return to the main road of the forest, and thus back to human civilization.
Every year, countless new adventurers lost their lives to this forest, Gauss had stumbled upon human bones several times during his past hunts.
Unfortunately, the clothes and equipment on them had disappeared, presumably scavenged clean by the various monsters residing in the forest.
If not for the existence of those monsters, Gauss might have been able to achieve his dream of buying a house just by scavenging the legacies of adventurers.
As thoughts swirled in Gauss’s mind, his steps did not slow. Relying on the memories of the original body and various marks left on oak trunks, he arrived at a seldom-visited hunting ground.
There was definitely a goblin presence near this hunting ground, though the numbers wouldn’t be too many.
The reason Gauss came here first was guided by related information in his mind.
It was an event from a month ago, not too long ago.
He hadn’t caught any prey for several days then, so he developed this "hunting ground," set up traps a few times, and got some results.
However, one early morning, when dawn was breaking and the forest was foggy, he came to collect traps, only to find bloodstains left by triggered traps.
The prey had evidently been taken by "someone" first.
He quickly determined that the thief was a goblin.
The humanoid footprints on the ground, though not many, were very clear.
The footprints were somewhat smaller than Gauss’s, roughly the size of a human teenager’s, barefoot, likely because it had rained not long before, making the imprints in the soil quite clear.
Obviously, it’s unlikely for a barefoot teenager to be wandering deep in the dense Jade Forest by sheer coincidence. Excluding this absurd hypothesis, the remaining probable targets are a few types of humanoid monsters.
Among them, the common goblin’s body size and footprint size matched the most.
Upon suspecting this hunting ground might lie within a small goblin tribe’s activity range, the cautious Gauss abandoned this hunting ground and hadn’t returned since.
He gathered his thoughts, returning to reality.
"Still, need to be careful. Although I didn’t see too many footprints nearby that time, and they seemed to come from the same goblin, it doesn’t mean there’s only that one goblin around here."
Gauss thought to himself, beginning to recall information about goblins.
Goblins are small dwarves with pointed ears, dark green skin, cloudy pupils, and thin limbs, not particularly strong, and communal creatures.
They have a preference for meat, occasionally picking berries, but their low intelligence and the vile traits in their blood make it impossible for these notorious monsters to engage in any productive labor, accompanying their lives with plundering.
Not only do they need to rob for food, but even normal biological processes like reproduction cannot be completed within their tribe, relying on capturing females from other races.
And from them, they particularly prefer human females, similar in stature, causing many villages to suffer long-term plundering and harm by goblins, looting food, tools, women, threatening human settlements and caravans, notorious for their misdeeds.
As for the actual combat power of goblins.
From Gauss’s memory, these green-skinned creatures were about as strong as his past life’s impression, with no special individuals, they lacked strong single combat strength, and an ordinary farmer could handle them with a weapon one-on-one.
But for this reason, goblins usually compensate for their lack of individual combat power with numbers, adept in ambushes and group attacks, and once in large numbers, they form a terrifying disaster.
Worse still, goblins are filthy creatures with rampant reproductive capabilities comparable to mice and cockroaches, with goblin embryo mothers typically giving birth to several at once.
The survival rate of goblin offspring is very high, and within less than a year, they develop from tiny mouse-like babies to mature individuals capable of reproduction.
After maturing, goblins continue to be driven by primitive desires, seizing females for the next round of reproduction.
In summary, they are a species that cannot be eradicated, akin to natural original sins.
Also, due to their penchant for harassing humans, especially small villages, human knowledge of goblins is among the deepest for all monsters.
Even children in illiterate villages could decently describe some of their characteristics.
"Goblins, consider yourselves the target!" Whether it’s the original, or Gauss who received normal modern education, he couldn’t feel any compassion or sympathy for goblins.
Forget theories on disrupting natural ecological balance; the best outcome for humanity is the complete eradication of these creatures.
Though giving himself a psychological pep talk, Gauss did not drop his guard.
Memory told him goblins were weak, but experience is the real teacher, and having never killed a goblin before, he naturally had to treat it cautiously.
Life is singular, both for him and goblins alike.
As long as it’s a living creature, it has a survival instinct.
This is genuine combat! Not just an adventure.
Gauss took a deep breath.
He first removed the pack from his body and buried it under a big tree with fallen leaves.
The tip of his Wooden Spear was already coated with a paralyzing poison.
At lunch, he deliberately found a spot by the window for some sun so the herbal juice would dry and harden on the spear tip; now, the originally dark spearhead glowed with a strange green light.
He didn’t put too much faith in this cheap paralyzing toxin.
You get what you pay for; it might have some effect but is unlikely to have an immediate impact.
Real combat relies on the weapon itself.
As he gripped the Wooden Spear, this body’s previous memory of using it gradually surfaced.
After some simple adaptation, he squatted down, sifting through the accumulated fallen leaves, looking for traces on the ground.
This was a hunter’s habit; biological activity leaves traces, especially for low-intelligence creatures that don’t hide their tracks.
Footprints, hair, feces, food scraps, activity traces.
Although the forest seemed tranquil, it was actually full of information.
Despite his youth, Gauss had trained with his father since childhood, so even as a rookie hunter, his ability to gather information was competent.
After all, as Gauss was the second son, he had to venture out on his own, and for a hunter interacting with nature, intelligence gathering was most crucial.
Hunting skill, trap-making skill were secondary, and without sufficient intelligence gathering, a hunter could not be qualified.
"Found it!"
Gauss was delighted to find another clear footprint.
It seemed very fresh, probably left just within the last couple of days.
This indicated that the goblin was still active nearby.
"Maybe it was impressed by the previous time it picked up my prey, so it occasionally comes back here, hoping for another free gain?"
Gauss felt he guessed the reason.
With a clue, Gauss started a more detailed search around the footprint, quickly finding more footprints and traces of feces.
The subtle clues on the ground led him further into the forest.
Before long, he reached a small pond not far from his "hunting ground."
Carefully parting the bushes, a scene came into view.
He had found his target for this trip.
A green-skinned little creature was leisurely sitting on a stone approximately knee-high to a normal person, sharpening its stone weapon—a Stone Spear.
Goblin, found you!
Gauss held his breath, and his eyes hidden in the bushes gradually brightened.
In his eyes, this wasn’t just a goblin but the starting point of his Otherworld profession journey.