novelnext Chapter 101 Great Wisdom
Chapter 101 Great Wisdom
Chapter 103 Great Wisdom
For a time, the group began cleaning up the rubble.
Ollie and Rom, master and apprentice, searched through the scattered wreckage for any possible goblin goods.
Apart from the goblin's rough clubs and the T-800 parts that had been violently dismantled, there was almost nothing of value on the ground.
Emily idly flitted around in mid-air, occasionally kicking a pebble or two away, amusing herself.
Luo Lan then walked past the broken goblin corpses on the ground, one after another.
Having already laid the groundwork with the excuse of "purification magic," he now openly removed his left-hand armor and used his left hand to touch the foul-smelling goblin flesh one by one.
[Chaos Essence +10]
[Chaos Essence +300]
[Current Chaotic Essence: 1688]
Within minutes, all the goblin corpses, under the [Condensation] authority, were transformed into purplish-black particles and absorbed.
A full 300 points of Chaos Source Essence.
This is clearly highly illogical for a group of natural monsters that should be devoid of any chaotic matter.
Following this doubt, Luo Lan's right eye gleamed, and [Thermal Vision] was silently activated.
The original intention was to use the residual warmth of the still-warm corpses to search for any remaining goblin corpses in order to replenish some Chaos Essence.
Unexpectedly, an anomaly was discovered in the [thermal vision] tool.
[Huh? Where am I?]
Dozens of meters away, in a secluded corner made up of interlocking gray-white boulders, there was a distinct source of life and heat.
Judging from its size and shape, it also appears to be a goblin.
[But if they're goblins, why didn't they attack during the chaotic battle?]
[Now that the main force has been wiped out, why isn't it fleeing?]
Several thoughts raced through Luo Lan's mind, giving rise to numerous doubts.
Without making a sound, he slowly walked towards the blind spot hidden by the boulder. He also mentally instructed via [psychic communication]: "Ah Cat, go and guard the exit through the crevice on the other side."
Upon hearing the command, Ah Mao, who had been sitting on the mound, darted out like a white shadow along the ground.
After a few leaps, it silently crouched behind the pile of boulders, blocking a possible escape route next to a narrow gap that only allowed half a person to pass through.
At this moment, Luo Lan had already walked up to the pile of huge gray-white rocks.
These rocks were naturally piled together, and the hole in the middle was extremely narrow, only a goblin of such small size could squeeze through smoothly.
The entrance was too small, so Luo Lan gripped the protrusion at the bottom of the rock with both hands and exerted force with her waist and legs at the same time.
The muscles in his arms were taut beneath the armor, and his [Strength 25] attribute displayed the power of a numerical monster.
"Click click click—"
The dull thud of stones scraping against each other sounded particularly jarring on the now quiet gravel slope.
The jarring noise immediately caught the attention of Rom and Ollie, who were searching for parts.
They stared in astonishment at Luo Lan, trying to move a rock mass that weighed at least several tons by manpower.
Emily then used a flash of light to hover in front of Luo Lan.
The little fairy tilted her head, her heterochromatic red and blue eyes full of curiosity: "Hmm? Luo Lan, why are you moving this big rock?"
Luo Lan was secretly working on her strength and didn't have time to answer. She just gave Emily a "don't rush" look.
Immediately afterwards, the second heart inside the body emitted a deep and powerful beat.
[Rage Iv.2] is activated instantly.
As both hearts pounded simultaneously, a wild power instantly surged into his limbs.
The giant rock, which could barely be moved and produced only a slight displacement, was now lifted up by Luo Lan with both hands.
He twisted his waist and turned around, hoisted the huge rock, and threw it to the open space to the side.
"Boom!"
The giant rock crashed to the ground, causing the surrounding rubble to rattle and crash.
As the dust settled and the shadow of the boulder disappeared, the scene was revealed to everyone.
"Ah! And there's that bald, green-skinned ugly monster!"
Emily spotted what was inside immediately, her wings began to flap rapidly, and a faint glow began to gather in her hands.
Luo Lan quickly spoke up to stop them, "Wait!"
Having temporarily deactivated the [Berserk] state, Luo Lan's chest rose and fell slightly as he fixed his gaze on the green-skinned dwarf behind the rocks.
It was a goblin dressed in tattered clothes.
The goblin was half-bent over, like a focused old craftsman, fiddling with some metal parts salvaged from the wreckage of the T-800.
Upon closer inspection, its right hand was actually holding a runic power core derived from the T-800.
Even more outrageous is that its left hand has been used to piece together a rough metal glove from various scattered gears and metal sheets.
The goblin was using its metal glove, smeared with a sticky liquid mixed with engine oil, to scramble across the ground.
A small, orange-yellow magic circle had formed on the ground in front of the goblin, emitting a faint orange glow.
This goblin seemed completely unprepared.
Even after hearing Emily's exclamation, it merely raised its bald head, glanced at everyone with its cloudy yellow eyes, and then indifferently lowered its head again to continue fiddling with the formation.
Because of the commotion on Roland's side, Rom had already limped over, with Ollie following closely behind like a little follower.
Upon seeing the survivors, Ollie, like Emily, instinctively cried out in alarm, "Ah! There are goblins too!"
Just as his hand touched the hilt of the sword, ready to draw it and charge forward, a rough, large hand pressed down firmly on his shoulder.
"Don't be impulsive, brat!"
Rom stopped his apprentice, the veteran eyeing the seemingly harmless goblin warily: "Brother Rom, what's going on?"
Luo Lan pointed to the rune array on the ground: "I don't know either—but logically speaking, shouldn't rune technology be a goblin's forte? Since when can a wild goblin understand runes?"
Luo Lan's words were a heartfelt expression of doubt.
His eyes glowed blue, and his True Sight was activated. His vision clearly showed that the orange halo on the ground was the Transformation runes that had been engraved inside the T-800 puppet.
But Luo Lan couldn't understand how this goblin had managed to repair the damaged array patterns.
Just like when Roland was in the dungeon looking through the old mage Ers's diary, Roland was a complete novice when faced with similar rune arrays.
Rom also noticed something was wrong, his tone puzzled: "Yeah, most goblins behave like wild beasts. But this goblin seems as intelligent as a gnome—"
Before Rom could finish speaking, the goblin that was squatting on the ground, upon hearing Rom's words "just like goblins," seemed to have been hit where it hurt, and became unusually agitated, quickly straightening up.
The goblin raised its left hand, a metal pieced together from gears and iron plates, and pointed it directly at the scattered T-800 parts on the ground.
From his mouth, full of rotten teeth and drool, he uttered a few unusually awkward words, which turned out to be the common language of the world of Akquaid: "Goblin, not smart—"
A slightly stuttering voice blew through the wind.
The green-skinned monster then turned its metal glove around, forcefully poked its bald head, and a smug expression actually appeared on its ugly face: "Goblin, the clever one!"
Even the boisterous drinking in the Grayrock Village tavern hadn't surprised Emily this much. Clapping her hands in mid-air, her eyes sparkling, she darted from behind Roland to the goblin's side: "Wow! This goblin can actually talk nonsense! Amazing!"
Upon hearing Emily's words, the strange goblin suddenly released its right hand and casually tossed the broken T-800 power core into the nearby dust.
"You're not very good at talking—"
As the goblin stammered a low growl, a dark red glint flashed in its murky pupils.
Just like before, when those dozen or so goblins went berserk and attacked Luo Lan and his group.
Beneath its dark green skin, strange dark red patterns began to emerge.
Even worse.
The dark red veins beneath the green skin surged and spread along the arm to the fingertips of the right-hand metal glove.
A thick, dark red, chaotic aura emanated from it.
The dark red mist, following its ankles, all seeped into the orange-yellow rune array on the ground.
The original T-800 [Transformation] rune immediately underwent a violent distortion, its color changing from orange to a dark red like dried blood.
The frequency of the rune array also changed, transforming from [deformation] into a wildly distorted [aberration].
The dark red [Aberration] rune quickly floated up from the ground and, like a branding iron, imprinted itself on the goblin's chest, completely blending with the dark red patterns on its body.
The short goblin, less than a meter tall, suddenly began to convulse violently.
"Click, click."
With a cracking sound like bones bursting, its muscles expanded wildly like an inflating balloon.
The originally withered and short limbs were stretched and thickened by the "abnormality", the green skin was torn and reassembled, and the dark red muscle fibers were directly exposed to the air.
Just seconds later, a small, green-skinned goblin appeared.
Right before everyone's eyes, [Aberration] transformed into a terrifying green-skinned behemoth over two meters tall, radiating a highly concentrated chaotic aura.
"roar--!"
The two-meter-tall mutated behemoth let out a deafening, bestial roar, and its bulging metal left glove smashed a large crater in the ground.
His cloudy yellow eyes had completely turned scarlet, staring intently at Luo Lan and the others ahead: "Fighting... even more powerful!"
Rom took a deep breath, gripped his iron sword, and leaned forward slightly. This time, he deliberately stood in front of Ollie, staring intently at the suddenly swollen monster.
Emily, who had been watching the spectacle with amusement, immediately frowned in disgust when the dark red markings appeared on the goblin's body.
"It stinks! This smell—I hate it!"
Covering her nose, Emily flapped her wings quickly, flying away from the mutated goblin and retreating to a higher point in the air.