Chương 3: Contribute to the Great Goblin Restoration

"My dear goblin brothers, there's no need for us to fight to the death. Why don't we shake hands and make peace? After all, we were all spawned by the same nest of wood rats! We are family!" Li Qinwu circled in small steps, leveling his spear to adjust his positioning while using words to provoke his opponents. Though goblins were low-level monsters, they weren't stupid. Seeing Li Qinwu holding his spear in a clear offensive stance, they raised their own weapons and pressed toward him.

The tallest goblin pup at the lead let out a roar: "Get him together! Kill him, and we'll split the food!" He held a stone in his left hand and a wooden stick in his right, actually mimicking Li Qinwu's combat style. It was a testament to the learning ability of these monsters; they could start imitating after just one glance. However, beasts were still beasts. How could their intellect compare to Li Qinwu, who possessed a human soul?

Li Qinwu suddenly pointed behind the goblins, shouting with a face full of feigned terror: "Chief... Chief! What are you doing here?!" Upon hearing the Chief had arrived, the goblins turned around in a panic. That tall, fat Goblin Chief was a recurring nightmare for the pups. If the hunting parties failed to bring back enough food, he would snatch up the pups to eat. Every goblin pup present was effectively his emergency rations; their fear of him was primal and irresistible.

The lead goblin pup spun his head around frantically, but the forest behind them was empty.

"Crap!" His innate cunning told him he'd been tricked. He tried to turn back instantly, but it was too late. Li Qinwu had already lunged, driving the spear deep into his abdomen.

"Aeee-agh!!" The agonizing pain made him scream frantically, tears and snot spraying out as he instinctively grabbed the spear shaft embedded in his body. Li Qinwu tried to yank the spear back, but the other gripped it with a death hold, refusing to let go. At that moment, the other three goblins realized they had been played. Seeing another of their number fall, they shrieked in a mix of rage and fear, hurling stones at Li Qinwu.

Refusing to abandon his primary weapon, Li Qinwu lowered his head to shield it and endured the barrage. Several bruises formed as the stones pelted his body.

"To hell with you!" Cursing through the pain, Li Qinwu gave up on pulling the spear out. Instead, he lunged forward with all his weight, driving the spearhead completely through the other's belly.

"Agh!!" With a final pained howl, the lead pup was pinned to the ground. Li Qinwu twisted the spear violently, dealing even more damage.

"Agh..." As his opponent went limp from the pain, Li Qinwu stepped on his chest and pulled. Finally, the spear came free.

"Die!!" Li Qinwu shouted to bolster his spirit, preparing to charge and finish off the remaining three in one go. But suddenly, he realized the spearhead was gone!

"Are you kidding me?!" Li Qinwu's eyes widened. After such intense combat, the boar tusk at the end of the stick had finally snapped off. He was now brandishing nothing but a blunt pole. He didn't have the legendary skill to kill people with a headless spear. He was now in a defensive bind. Seeing this, the remaining three goblins regained their confidence and charged with their wooden sticks. Li Qinwu retreated several paces and activated his "Silver Tongue" mode.

"Dear family! There is no need for bloodshed! There are so many delicious relatives lying on the ground already—enough for all of us to eat our fill. Why risk your lives against me?" These words actually moved two of the goblins. They slowed their pace. True... with all these bodies here, we can eat until we burst. Why keep fighting this guy? However, the goblin at the very front was apparently a bit thick-headed. He only wanted to kill Li Qinwu and didn't listen to a word.

He charged forward, screaming and waving his stick. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Seeing them lose their coordination, Li Qinwu charged to meet the lone attacker. Before they collided, he thrust his foot into the dirt and kicked upward, sending a spray of sand into the other's eyes.

"Gah!" The goblin dropped his stick to clutch his eyes. Li Qinwu raised the spear shaft and swung it down with everything he had. With a loud crack, the wooden pole smashed into the goblin's bare forehead. The stick snapped in half, and the goblin's skull visibly dented. He stood stiffly for a second before toppling over backward. Simultaneously, the system prompt rang out: [You have killed a Goblin Pup. XP +1] That final swing exhausted the last of Li Qinwu's strength.

His vision blurred, and he collapsed onto the dirt.

"Dammit!" Li Qinwu struggled to get up. There were still two enemies standing. If he couldn't get back on his feet, he was done for! He thrashed desperately, but low blood sugar made him deathly weak, and the sudden exertion had left his brain starved of oxygen. He felt like vomiting; the entire world was spinning. Is this where it ends? Li Qinwu thought, quietly awaiting death. But ten seconds passed. Twenty seconds. Three minutes. Ten minutes. The remaining two goblins never came for the kill.

After ten minutes of lying still, Li Qinwu recovered a sliver of strength. He sat up shakily and looked around, only to realize the two goblins had run away!

"Heh! Disorganized rabble!" Li Qinwu mocked them mercilessly. These cowardly beasts—if they had swarmed him at the start, he would have been finished. But they had zero sense of teamwork. Swayed by his words and tactics, they had simply walked into his traps one by one like idiots.

"I can't let them get back. If they tell the tribe I can make fire, it'll be bad for me." Two weeks of living here had taught him that goblins were selfish creatures with zero foresight. If the Chief found out he could make fire, he wouldn't be promoted; he'd be eaten. In the Chief's mind, eating a smart kinsman probably made one smarter. He grabbed the remaining half of the boar femur and sucked out the marrow in a few large gulps. The rush of fat filled his hungry stomach, slightly easing the dizziness.

He picked up a sharpened boar tusk and began to slowly track them back toward the settlement. He wasn't worried about them getting far. Those pups were in the same state he was—starving and hypoglycemic. After a sudden burst of panicked running, they would likely collapse just as he had. Sure enough, before Li Qinwu had walked even five hundred meters, he found the two goblins on the ground with their eyes rolled back. They were twitching, unable to even sit up.

This was the consequence of intense exercise on an empty stomach. He stepped forward and finished them off with the tusk. Meanwhile, the goblin he had stabbed earlier finally bled out. Three points of XP were credited, and his level changed. Level: 0 → 1 Experience: 0/20 Attribute Points +1, Focus Points +1 Finally, a level up. Li Qinwu opened the Mount & Blade II attribute panel and dumped the point into Vigor, bringing it from 3 to 4. The attribute bonus was immediate.

Li Qinwu felt the dizziness from low blood sugar vanish. His constitution, vitality, and strength all increased. Even his height grew to 0. 9 meters. His strength was now likely on par with an adult goblin. He felt he finally had a foothold in the tribe. As long as the Chief didn't target him, he could slowly develop until he was strong enough to overthrow the Chief and take the throne himself! Thinking this, he looked at his Focus Point. What should he pick?

Logically, he should put it into Polearms, as it was the only weapon he could currently acquire. But after some thought, he put it into Athletics. In his current weak state, investing in survival and mobility was the smarter move. With one level of focus in Athletics, Li Qinwu felt his steps become significantly lighter. His mood brightened as he whistled his way back to the scene of the fight. He looked at a goblin lying on the ground—the one he had knocked out with a stone at the very beginning.

He chose not to kill this one, instead using stolen hemp rope to bind its hands. As soon as the knot was tied, a ding echoed in his mind. [Victory!] Enemies Killed: 7 Enemies Captured: 1 XP Gained: 7 Casualties: 0 Loot Obtained: Grain x2, Goblin Ear x3, Stone x1 Denars Gained: 23 Li Qinwu was delighted to see loot and money drop from the battle.

He didn't know what the stones or goblin ears were for, but since they were stored in the Mount & Blade inventory and didn't take up physical space in his hands, he left them be. The two sacks of grain, however, thrilled him—he finally had real food! In Bannerlord, defeating different enemies dropped different gear—sea raiders dropped helmets and javelins, while regular troops might drop precious armor. But one thing was constant: no matter the enemy, they always dropped grain.

With a thought, two sacks of grain appeared at his feet. Each weighed about five kilograms and was stored in a burlap sack. This was enough food to last him over a month. His eyes glowed with ambition; he needed to find more enemies to see if he could drop even rarer items! With a wave of his hand, the grain returned to his inventory. He saw the capacity was now at 6/30.

"It seems items occupy one slot regardless of weight. I remember that adding mules or increasing party size raises the carrying capacity!" Thinking of a "party," Li Qinwu eagerly opened the Party Panel. It showed 1/20 —the maximum number of soldiers a Tier 1 Clan could carry. This limit would increase as his Clan Tier rose. He needed to recruit soldiers quickly.

Based on Mount & Blade II, soldiers under a player's command were like fanatics; a dozen peasants in rags would charge a hundred heavy knights without retreating until they were all dead. To recruit, he normally had to go to a village and use Denars. The only "village" nearby was the goblin tribe. He planned to head back and see how that worked. But there was another way: recruiting from prisoners. Li Qinwu shifted his gaze from the troop page to Prisoner Management. It showed 1/10.

Prisoners: Goblin Pup x1 Li Qinwu walked over to the unconscious pup and delivered a sharp slap to wake him up. The goblin pup stared at him in a daze, completely confused by the situation. Li Qinwu steadied the pup's body, reached out to hook his fingers under the creature's pustule-covered chin, and looked deeply into his yellowed eyes.

"Oh~ my dear family! Join my army, and contribute to the Great Restoration of the Goblins!"