svetikya Page 374
Page 374
Even powerful magical beasts would only become food for goblins when surrounded by a large number of them.
However, the prey is limited.
The most common low-level goblins, besides offering food to higher-level goblins, also need to eat themselves, so they can only move outwards to find food.
However, it was evening.
The goblin centurions, who were waiting for the lower-ranking goblins to provide food, discovered that the food had become scarce.
It seems the lower-ranking goblins didn't bring back much food.
"What happened? Where's the food?"
A goblin centurion sat on the ground inside his tent and asked the goblin shaman before him a question.
"N-no, I don't know! My men went out and never came back!" the goblin shaman replied tremblingly.
Logically, they shouldn't spend that much time searching for food. (Mio)
Goblins have an incredibly keen sense of smell, easily locating prey both in the air and on the ground.
Furthermore, they are required to return within a certain timeframe; even if they haven't found food, they are supposed to come back.
But let alone bringing back food, very few goblins even returned to their territory.
"Go and see what's going on!" the goblin centurion ordered.
"Yes!"
The goblin shaman ran away as fast as he could, afraid that if he was too slow, the centurion would slap him to death.
then……
The goblin shaman has not returned in the past two hours.
Finally, the Goblin Centurion couldn't hold back any longer and urgently summoned all the Goblin Shamans in his territory.
"Does anyone know what happened?" the goblin centurion asked in a deep voice.
The goblin shamans looked at each other, none of them daring to utter a sound.
Clearly, they all know something.
"Oh!"
The goblin centurion suddenly stood up and kicked a goblin shaman to pieces, splattering blood and flesh onto the goblin shaman next to him.
"Gah!!"
The other goblin shamans were so frightened that they kowtowed repeatedly.
"Centurion! None of the goblins that went out have returned! None of them have returned!!"
"That's right! They disappeared as soon as they went outside!!"
"I don't know what happened!"
"I don't know either!!"
The goblin shamans reported in panic, their voices clamoring, but the only certainty was that—
Whether they went out to hunt or to check the situation, none of them ever came back.
The goblin shamans didn't know what to say.
Simply reporting "they went out and never came back" is completely useless!
What if the goblin that went out just came back late?
What if it's just that food is hard to find?
"enough!"
The goblin centurion stomped his foot on the ground, causing the ground to shake violently.
"You, go and check with the other centurions to see if this is happening only in our territory."
You must find a way to report this to the centurion; if this continues, our territory will not be able to provide food.
You guys, come with me to check the situation.
The rest of you stay here and do what you need to do.
The Goblin Centurion was curious to know what it meant to go out and never come back.
It also considered that it might be humans causing the trouble, but if humans were to come, it would inevitably run into them sooner or later, even if it stayed here.
There's no point in staying here; we might as well go and see what happened.
The remaining three goblin shamans split up to count the number of goblins and the remaining food, and then...
Their centurion, like the other goblins who went out, never returned.
By the morning of the second day, the goblins responsible for guarding the outermost ring were in an uproar.
More than half of the goblins sent out to find food have disappeared, and nearly a third of the goblin centurions sent out to scout the area have also disappeared.
Large numbers of goblins began migrating towards the inner territory, only to be driven back to the outermost edge.
An invisible fear began to envelop the goblins.
A few short hours later, the lower-level goblins were dispatched to search for the other missing goblins.
However, the result was...
Nothing was found.
Although they returned, they found nothing.
They had hoped to find bloodstains and signs of a fight, but...
Nothing was found.
The missing goblins had only stepped out of the territory; their footprints quickly disappeared.
The absence of the smell of blood and signs of battle indicates that they had not fought any enemies at all.
Such a large number of goblins disappeared silently outside the territory.
Like evaporation.
Because it was a time of preparedness, the Goblin Empire quickly learned of this as well.
Gomon was the first to react when he heard that the goblins had disappeared.
“It must have been done by humans,” Gomon said in a deep voice.
“I know it was humans who did it, but how did they manage to do it?” a royal attendant from a neighboring country asked in bewilderment.
"Besides the man who seriously injured me, I also fought with a woman."
She controls something similar to slime, capable of dissolving goblins.
"The goblins that went out were most likely dissolved by her, which is why they left no trace!" Gomon said solemnly.
"What a joke! Do you know how many goblins went missing last night? How could a human like her dissolve such a large area of goblins in one night?" A royal attendant frowned.
"What if other humans could control slimes that can dissolve goblins, just like her?" Gomon countered.
It saw it.
I saw it! A man used a slime-like rope to wrap around its arm! (Nine)
Chapter 70 The Vanished Goblin Leaders (4k)
A highly agile warrior can kill a low-level goblin in less than a second.
If the brain is destroyed precisely, not a single drop of blood will be left.
No goblin can escape the senses of a scout-type hero, so all that is needed is for the scout-type hero to surround the entire area at a certain distance, ensuring that all goblins will never return.
They died silently, without even catching a glimpse of the highly agile warriors.
There are many ways to dispose of the corpses. Since the goblins can't come out anyway, you can bury them far away, burn them, or even feed them to lucky monsters.
The reason why no body was left behind is quite simple—
Do not leave food for goblins.
A single goblin's corpse can feed a group of goblins a full meal. In situations where food is scarce, killing a large group of goblins and not disposing of the corpses actually leaves food for the goblins.
Therefore, the corpse must be disposed of, at least out of the reach of the goblins.
This situation lasted for two days, after which unrest began to erupt within the goblins.
Due to the lack of food, there have been instances where vulnerable goblins have been killed for food.
Humans might be so hungry that they would eat grass and dirt rather than harm their own kind, but goblins have no moral constraints and will prioritize eating the flesh of their own kind before eating grass.
It's not that we've run out of food in the forest; we can still find some if we look carefully. But compared to working ourselves to the bone to find a meal, the food of our brothers is much more appealing.
Aside from instances of goblins cannibalizing each other, the majority of goblins still go out in search of food.
Since you disappear once you reach a certain area, why not just find food within that area?
With this in mind, the goblins soon discovered...
The circle has shrunk.
The "disappeared place" has advanced at least several hundred meters.
They used to disappear after walking a certain distance, but now that distance is even closer, further compressing the goblins' territory.
Fortunately, the number of goblins has decreased significantly, so the territory hasn't shrunk to the point where it's uninhabitable.
However, given the speed at which the "disappeared place" is moving, it's estimated that a large number of goblins will have to migrate backwards in just a few days.
however……
They don't even know the enemy's situation.
Who is the enemy? Where are they? The goblins have all disappeared—are they dead or have they escaped?
No goblin knew what was happening outside; only their fear grew stronger day by day.
Although the lowest-ranking goblins are carefree, their fear of death is almost paramount, and they certainly know they cannot go out casually.
Even the higher-level goblins are just as cowardly, after all... apart from the centurion who ran out to see what was going on the first day, no goblins of level three or above went out afterward.