Chương 42: Chapter 39

Success usually came in droves, so Sobelle expected to find the greenskin camp shortly after she killed the previous group of female Goblins but this unfortunately did not happen. The Nogg wisened up when it came to choosing his camp it seemed, whereas before he chose such an open camp close to the village, now Sobelle felt she might have to explore the deeper reaches of the forest to even get a sign of the camp. Well at least she managed to bring down some of the remaining females the Nogg had access to.

And all of them were pregnant on top of this, overall, Sobelle considered this particular outing to be a success. Though it could have gone better.

'I might need to ask the chief how to track Goblins if I want to find them properly.' Sobelle didn't want to trouble the old man some more but she had no other option besides asking him for help. He was the only one in the village knowledgeable enough to figure where the Nogg brought the remaining greenskins. And if he somehow didn't, then Sobelle feared that she might not be able to find the Goblins at all.... No, that was the wrong mindset to have.

Giving up just because she was exhausted of options was simply stupid and reckless, the greenskins grew with each passing they and she was their primary target. If she got complacent and decided that hunting them was not worth the effort, then her capture was simply inevitable. Instead, she needed to continue searching for the Goblins using what the chief taught her. And this was if she assumed the chief wouldn't be able to help her in properly locating the actual location of the camp.

Knowledge was simply going to make her job easier, so it will always have a use. That was what the Gods taught her by always giving her trials that tested her [Intelligence] and constantly increased it. This meant that she'd also gain knowledge while chasing after the Goblins, and that was just as valuable as the things the chief taught her. They were possibly even more valuable since she was the one who earned it, and so she related to it on a personal level. [+1 Wisdom!] Just as she thought, the Gods agreed with her on this. She was on the right path, and that meant she should never give up on chasing the greenskins, even if she did not get any quick answers from the chief. Solutions were never meant to be immediate. For now, that could wait. Sobelle wasn't so stupid as to keep going even though she had no clue where she was going, she needed to leave the forest and maybe come back here another day.

Or rather, she'd be back here every day so that she could get used to navigating the darker areas of the forest. It'd only make things easier if she did. However, Sobelle had chosen to retreat for the time being and she ran back out to the areas with sunlight. From there, it was only a matter of time before she reached the campsite she made by the lake.

She expected Chael to stay in the village as it was dangerous to go out into the forest all on her own—especially since she was a woman—but the young merchant was casually doing pottery along the edge of the lake. Sobelle found it both reckless and brave. Chael should have been as scared as everyone else, instead, she came out here to do whatever it was she planned to do. Prepare all the things she wanted to sell or something?

The whole context was lost to Sobelle, she wasn't a merchant so she did not know what that even meant.

"You're here." Chael did not look away from the pot she was making. She was intently focused on getting the clay into shape.

"Did you kill any greenskins today?" Chael acted like she was Sobelle's wife and that her husband just came back from a long day of work instead of someone who forcefully shoved herself into Sobelle's personal space. She really had a knack for being pretty uncaring when it came to other people's personal space huh? And that was not counting the fact that she had no clue what boundaries even meant to begin with. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Nine of them. All female." Sobelle added that last part in case Chael would be scared that she found goblins. As it turns out, this was completely unnecessary.

"Just as I thought, the only ones left are female." Chael washed her hands and carried the clay to a pit she had dug on the drier parts of the ground.

"The chief was right wasn't he? That the Nogg would be building numbers starting from now. And that everything we'll deal with would have to be healthy Goblins."

'We'll deal with it?' Which part of this whole arrangement involved the word 'we' when it came to killing greenskins? Sobelle was the only one in the entire village who dealt with them as far as she was aware, and not a single villager even dared to help her. They were all just glad that it was only her who risked her life out here.

"Don't be mad, I know that them living means they'll be a bigger problem in the future but I believe in you!" Chael shot her a grin that was not reassuring at all.

"You'll be stronger by the time they come back, I just know it." She was not wrong, though Sobelle assumed that Chael meant that in a way that she'd be more experienced and better trained with handling her weapons. This was wrong, she'd have more skills and more stats when the Goblins took their time preparing. So it wasn't really just them that grew stronger over time, Sobelle was too.

'I don't have to keep searching for them now do I? I can just train and get stronger until not even their numbers would be good enough to beat me.' Why was she so worried about the Goblins eventually overpowering her? She should have just focused on herself. How foolish of her to think that she was under threat of being overwhelmed when in reality, it was the Goblins who needed to worry. Not her.

"You're right." Sobelle sat down as the tension that's been causing her muscles to knot finally disappeared.

"I will grow stronger by the time they come back, and you know what? They won't stand a chance against me. I'll win."

"Perfectly summarized!" Chael clapped lightly and went back to making her pottery.

"So, what will you be doing today? I was thinking that maybe I can show you how to make pottery and we can both—""I'm going out to hunt. Boars sound like the perfect thing to eat right now." Sobelle was not sure just how she'd hunt a boar, but she'd be damned if she didn't get to satiate her cravings. She wanted to eat meat, and so she will.

"I'll be back in a little bit. Or maybe it'll take me longer than that, I don't really know how to hunt a boar."

"Sadly, neither do I." Chael sounded so genuinely disappointed that it got Sobelle to look back for a brief moment. What was she on about? Merchants don't really hunt now do they? Sobelle's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I would have loved to come with you otherwise. It's unfortunate, really." Was Chael faking it? Was that it? What was the point of this?

"You don't have to act like you want to help, you know?" Sobelle hated that Chael somehow doubted her enough that she believed Sobelle wanted her to help out.

"It's fine if you just sit there, I don't mind."

"No! That's not—" she was exactly like everyone else. She panicked the same way when caught in a lie too.

"I said it's fine. You don't have to help me, I wanted to hunt. That's it. And you can stay here for as long as you want, I don't hate you for that." Sobelle turned and walked away. Why did Chael even bother to pretend like she wanted to hunt and help? She would have loved to come with Sobelle? As if. No sane merchant would hunt a boar. She clearly faked it, and for what? To get into Sobelle's good graces? To make her think that she was actually helping every so often? Sobelle honestly wasn't even sure anymore.

She was just annoyed so she left. Hunting for a boar while being slightly irritated had somehow prevented Sobelle from going under the [Flow State] and it worried her enough that it dropped a metaphorical cold bucket of water over her simmering anger. She believed that the skill was absolute in its activation, but she believed wrong. It had limits. Getting angry at something would not let her go under the [Flow State] and so maybe she should temper that part of herself.

Otherwise she might get caught in a bad situation, especially since she never made any good decisions when angry to begin with.

'And what other thing could affect my [Flow State]?' Sobelle thought in worry. She shook it off and cast it aside for now, she needed to find her boar and take it back to camp. Maybe she could even apologize to Chael for all the things she said. She hadn't wanted to give the young merchant the benefit of the doubt, but a grudge made her angry and that stopped her skill from activating.