Chapter 57: Chapter 57

She guessed this goblin squad was waiting for Huo Shaobo’s group to kill the bear before ambushing them, hoping to score eight fresh human corpses and a sizable brown bear.

The goblins had a slight numbers advantage: a well-equipped squad leader, two goblin archers, and eight warriors.

Unfortunately, there was no way to warn Huo Shaobo’s team in advance.

Mù Yíng readied her spells, planning to strike the moment the goblin leader gave the attack signal: Thunderwave to disrupt, Entangle to bind, tie up the archers’ weapons, and Mist to sow panic.

Yes, at some point, she’d realized her mist spell had a fear effect on goblins. Compared to sonic attacks, sudden fog always sent them into a total panic.

With all her stats boosted, Mù Yíng took out both archers in a flash. With her current defenses, goblin arrows could barely leave a pea-sized wound, but they’d still be dangerous to Huo Shaobo’s team.

To prevent the goblins from fleeing, she turned her attention to the regular warriors after dealing with the archers.

“Captain, it’s Mù Yíng! Where’d all these goblins come from?”

Huo Shaobo’s team had just killed the bear and barely had time to celebrate before the chaos behind them caught their attention.

Mù Yíng had deliberately kept her Mist spell from affecting them, so only the goblins were left half-blind on the battlefield.

Fortunately, Huo Shaobo’s team didn’t disappoint. They quickly regrouped and joined the fight.

They were all skilled fighters—even the mages could throw punches between spells—and their teamwork was seamless. Together with Mù Yíng, they surrounded the goblins.

Mù Yíng used Entangle to lock down one side, while Huo Shaobo’s team held off any goblins that slipped through.

Soon, even the goblin leader—who’d managed to stay calm until now—completely lost it.

“Walala, spare the goblins! I’m willing to serve the great Lord of Mist as my—master…”

Wait, did she just hear the goblin speak Common?

Mù Yíng hurriedly pulled her spear from the goblin leader’s neck, but it was too late—the bilingual goblin was already dead.

“So these goblins can communicate after all. But what’s this ‘Lord of Mist’?”

Mù Yíng was baffled.

“Haha, Captain, we avenged you!” Lu You cheered, giving his captain a hearty slap on the shoulder.

“These goblins were probably planning to ambush us again,” Huo Shaobo said, relieved. This group was stronger and larger than the last one they’d faced—if not for Mù Yíng, things could’ve gone very badly.

He thanked Mù Yíng sincerely and offered her all the loot.

Mù Yíng waved it off. “Let’s just split it according to our kill notifications. I couldn’t have taken them all down without you guys.”

She’d just happened to arrive at the perfect moment for her; there was no need to get greedy and owe anyone favors.

With so many people around, she couldn’t stash the goblin corpses, so she focused on looting the drops.

The elite goblin squad looked a bit better off, but their hygiene was still questionable. Despite living by the river, they clearly didn’t care about appearances.

This time, she was prepared—she pulled out a pair of gloves from her robe before searching.

The archers yielded two small bows and two quivers of arrows. The goblin leader had a bracer, a set of half-plate armor, and a spiked mace. The regular goblins dropped three sharp machetes.

Because of their small size, most of this gear was useless to her—only the bracer barely fit. The rest would have to be sold at the weapons or general store.

[Ironwood Bracers]

[Quality: Green, Excellent]

[Effect: Strength +1]

A green-quality bracer with +1 Strength—Mù Yíng didn’t mind its “rustic” appearance at all. She planned to give it a good wash and wear it.

Besides the bracer, the biggest surprise was finding 2 gold and 8 silver coins in the goblins’ pouches.

With her recent savings and monster compendium quest rewards, Mù Yíng now had 10 gold, 35 silver, and 68 copper coins.

The sub-camp was calling her name.

“Well, I’ve got things to do—see you!” Mù Yíng pocketed her coins and hurried back to the territory.

“Captain, is that girl a bit socially awkward? She ran off so fast,” Lu You said, unable to stop her.

Huo Shaobo shot his friend a look. “What are you standing around for? Don’t you want the bear meat?”

Back in the territory, Mù Yíng dove into her treehouse and quickly paid the 10 gold coins needed to build the sub-camp and teleportation array.

But just like the previous lord’s decree, the sub-camp could only be built on-site, and the teleportation array could only be set up between the main camp and sub-camp.

“Sigh…”

Mù Yíng glanced at her nearly depleted mana bar and sighed. No way she was going out again today.

She scooped up the chubby, round Rollie into her arms and gave him a good rub, trying to calm her excitement.

Rollie had grown a lot—sitting down, he was almost as tall as the table. She couldn’t really lift him anymore, and he was still in his juvenile phase, with plenty of room to grow.

His stats had also improved significantly, especially strength and constitution, now at 13 and 14. Agility had risen to 9.

“Hurry up and grow—I want to ride a bear!”

Mù Yíng muttered.

Her figurine, Silver, let out a howl and transformed into a little silver wolf, lying in front of her with a hopeful look.

Just like when it used to walk her to school through the forest, its tail wagged enthusiastically, as if trying to sell her on its riding skills.

“…""

Mù Yíng poked its belly, amused. “How come I never noticed you were so competitive before?”

Rollie quietly scooted away, thinking his master could be really oblivious sometimes. Couldn’t she smell the jealousy in the air?"

"In the block world, Mu Ying got up from her single bed and habitually glanced to the side, even cheerfully waving her hand.

At first, she’d found it a bit creepy to have the evil wizard staring at her as she slept every night, but she’d gradually gotten used to it. After all, as long as she got into bed quickly enough and waited a bit before getting up, there was nothing he could do to her.

Inside the massive stone hall carved into the mountain, the lights blazed brightly. Fifty single beds were arranged there, forty-five of which were already occupied. The last five beds were reserved for the final five villagers.

Ever since the first dungeon core was found, Mu Ying had been leading the villagers all over the world in search of more dungeons.

When the second dungeon was discovered in an underground tunnel, Mu Ying guessed that the rest would also be hidden somewhere in the subterranean passages.

Sure enough, her hunch was right. One dungeon after another was found, and the number of zombies roaming at night dropped significantly.