Chapter 96: Chapter 86 – Goblin Tribe, and Mercenaries

"Goblins are hunter-gatherers by nature, and their instinct usually leads them into forming tribes, or at times, collective of tribes that might range from twenty to thousands of members. They are far from the strongest of races physically, but their sense of unity and camaraderie meant that you almost never face a goblin alone." - Garth Wainwrought, professor of socioeconomics at the Levain Institute of Higher Learning.

 

Contrary to the orcish lands that were Xewaur Plains, the goblin lands to its east looked almost like a different world. Where the orcish lands was temperate in climate, and mostly boasted vast savannahs punctuated with the occasional forests, the goblin lands had lush rainforests in many places, with the grasslands also packed with dense shrubs. The climate was tropical to boot, high in both heat and humidity, which actually was quite unpleasant to someone accustomed to colder climates like Cal.

 

Once she went past the border, she followed the path of the nearest river she found, as it was quite likely that any settlement would be built near a river. It also helped that the river meant she could just take a plunge into the water when the afternoon heat felt unbearable.

 

The river wasn't too deep, as the water reached only to her chest in depth. Despite the tropical heat, the flowing water was decently cool. Unfortunately, it was not even five minutes before her bath was disturbed. A swarm of fish around the size of her palm had approached, and flocked around her as their maws opened to reveal two rows of knife-like teeth.

 

They were too small for their bite to have possessed much force however, and their teeth couldn't even penetrate her bare skin after she circulated some of her magic around. So she went on with her bath unbothered while the swarm tried to bite her all over. It was rather ticklish, however.

 

Unfortunately, the next intruder was less ignorable, since it was a three-meter long alligator. It opened its jaws wide as it lunged at her, and found to its surprise that Cal had caught its jaws with her hands, and prevented it from closing its jaws. She had to exert some magic to overcome the beast's jaw muscles, but a strong push did the trick and dislocated the beast's lower jaw.

 

She caught it by the tail when it turned around and tried to flee, and with some effort kept it in place. Then she heaved, her arms raised the tail she held high as she started to spin the alligator over her head. Once she felt she had enough momentum she flung the beast towards a large tree, and a loud crack sounded as the alligator's back impacted the tree. The beast fell and twitched, tried to crawl away but failed to do so as the rear half of its body suddenly turned to unresponsive dead weight.

 

Cal just finished her bath first before she walked out of the river - she plucked a couple fish that managed to hang on with their teeth and tossed them back the river in the process - and dressed herself. The alligator she dispatched with a quick blow to the neck, and since it was already past noon and she hadn't eaten lunch yet, she decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth.

 

She butchered the alligator by the river, and set up a fire pit over which she broiled cuts from the beast's meat. The first slice she tried without seasoning other than a little salt and pepper, so she had a baseline on how to prepare it properly, and to her surprise, it tasted quite a bit like chicken, or fish, or rather, both at the same time, just with a bristlier texture.

 

The following slices, she slathered with a pungent condiment from fermented fishes as well, which added a sharp tang to the flavor that meshed pleasantly. She had allowed her mana to go loose while she ate, as its presence drove beasts away before they could bother her meal time.

 

She continued to follow the river for the day, and by the evening she noticed smoke far in the distance, and adjusted her path to match. The night passed uneventfully in her tent, and she continued on her trek the next day towards the smoke's direction.

 

Shortly before noon she saw the tribal village that was located in a man-made clearing beside the rainforest. A perimeter of wooden stakes that formed a rudimentary palisade circled the settlement, which looked to be larger than she expected. As she got closer, she counted at least a couple hundred mud or wooden huts within the perimeter.

 

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"Hail, stranger! Another mercenary for the mission?" Asked a goblin guard in accented common as she approached the gate in plain sight. The goblin was short and rather scrawny as was common for his kind, and dressed only in a short skirt made from dried grass, and what looked like an oversized, utterly exaggerated codpiece that's closer to a penile sheath made out of carved tree bark.

 

"Mission? Afraid not. Just travelling on my own. May I come in?" Cal replied.

 

"Sure, sure, go right ahead," said the guard nonchalantly. "Might wanna avoid the plains to the north though. Tyrant lizard been raging there of late. What we got the mercs for, even."

 

"Good to know," she replied with a smirk.

 

Inside the settlement she saw mostly goblins dressed in a similar manner to the guard outside - females went topless and sans the silly penile sheath - as well as some therians who had adhered to a similar dress code, or just strolled around buck naked except for their fur.

 

Honestly, it was quite a reasonable way to dress when the climate was considered. The heat and humidity together made most clothing downright uncomfortable to wear.

 

The mercenaries she found pretty easily since they stuck out like sore thumbs with the way they dressed. As she walked towards them one of the dwarves sighed out loud and removed his shirt and trousers. He sat down just in his underwear and fanned himself with his buckler to the chuckles of some of the other mercenaries.

 

From the way they seated themselves, there were three separate parties of mercenaries. A group of seven dwarves sat to one side as they fanned themselves with whatever was at hand. The second group was mixed, eight members, most of them of such mixed lineage it was hard to tell what exactly they were descended from.

 

The last group of six had four elves and two elephant-therians as their members. Curiously, most of the mercenaries busied themselves with weapons maintenance, and Cal saw predominantly heavy ranged weapons, with the melee weapons likely meant for self defense.

 

It was a rather curious choice, but when she considered that the mission was likely to hunt an animal, it made sense as well.

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