Wizard: I am a goblin

Chapter 76 Damn dogheads!

"So it is, so it is."

After much persuasion, Gebu finally convinced the driver to wait for an hour.

After arranging the donkey cart, the halfling refreshed his mask again, and then, with one tall and one short person, followed the kobold's trail.

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Geb and the swordswoman disliked each other and walked one after the other, with a smiling dwarf between them.

Gebu chatted with the dwarf for a few minutes—the guy was very cheerful, and after some subtle probing from Gebu, he revealed most of his background.

The attacked dwarven caravan came from Stonefoot Mountain in the west of the Old Kingdom. Their destination was Redwood Town—where the small caravan would meet up with the Salt and Iron Merchants' caravan, and then head east together to the border between the Kingdom and the Empire: Shanhaiguan.

These two countries have been at war for thirty years, and recently they have finally started peace talks.

It is said that the kingdom's leaders and the empire's new emperor are negotiating inside Shanhaiguan Pass. Once an agreement is reached, the entire continent will usher in a long-awaited peace.

The largest trading guild in the Dwarf Kingdom, the Salt and Iron Merchant Guild, aims to seize this opportunity and become a pioneer in facilitating trade between the two countries.

The journey from Chifang Town to Shanhaiguan takes about a month. If the timing is right, the peace talks should be almost over by the time the caravan arrives at the pass.

Once there's peace and the ban is lifted, they can make money by passing through the checkpoints. A brilliant plan.

"Dulin, does your caravan need a herbalist?" Gebu asked tentatively. "What preparations do I need to make if I want to travel with you?"

"Unfortunately, our caravans rarely accept strangers—the kingdom has very strict regulations on commerce, and it took the merchant guild many years to win the trust of the church and the royal family," the dwarf said. "Gebu, when a dwarf tells you 'many years,' he doesn't mean five or six years, but fifty or sixty years, or even a hundred years... This hard-won trading license is the merchant guild's most important asset."

Gebu interrupted the dwarf: "Trading license? What's that?"

"It's just a piece of paper, stamped with the kingdom's seal. Without this paper, you can't do business across towns."

"Did everyone in the caravan have one of these pieces of paper?"

"That's why the Salt and Iron Merchants' license is so valuable: as long as you're in the Salt and Iron Merchants' caravan, you can do business freely throughout the kingdom, regardless of whether you have an individual license or not. But on the other hand, the behavior of each member also affects the reputation of the entire merchant guild."

"So you can understand why caravans don't accept strangers indiscriminately: merchants won't easily risk their reputation. To join a caravan, you need to have a certain reputation, so people know you won't cheat or swindle; or, someone can vouch for you and you need to pay a deposit."

"If you want to make money, you have to pay first."

Gebu thought about it and realized that the threshold was too high.

"Don't worry, the deposit will be fully refunded once the caravan reaches its destination... Consider this money temporarily held in the Salt and Iron Merchants' Bank. Moreover, the caravan itself is a market. Purchasing services, hiring laborers, and exchanging goods within the caravan can all be done directly using the deposit through accounting, increasing convenience and reducing risk."

"I understand now, that makes sense."

Gebu verbally agreed, but inwardly he thought: It's reasonable, but there's no room for trouble.

This caravan sounded like a good cover. Geb was somewhat tempted.

Now, the entire kingdom is searching for him. Although he has disguised himself, a strange halfling traveling alone is still very conspicuous.

If I could join this caravan... I could travel, earn money, and cultivate at the same time. It would save me a lot of unnecessary trouble.

This is a land of witch hunters; using magic for self-defense is dangerous. If you can find someone powerful to rely on, do so; it's not shameful.

After all, the road is not safe.

Thinking of this, Gebu looked at the swordswoman who was walking at the back of the three.

The traces left by that camp made Geb uneasy.

The woman was right about one thing: the kobolds didn't have that much fighting power. At most, they could only catch a lone, unlucky person, and they generally didn't have the guts to attack human camps.

The one who massacred the travelers was someone else.

The kobold just happened to be there later and picked up the scraps.

This is one of the reasons why Gebu agreed to help the dwarves: if it were a challenge against a group of human bandits, no amount of money would make Gebu go; that would be suicide.

Be careful, this road is not like the forest, people can be treacherous. Gebu told himself.

"Hey, halfling, are we there yet?" the woman said, interrupting Gebu's thoughts. "You're not leading us in circles, are you?"

"Be patient, Blade Maiden. This trail goes through this ravine—I reckon the kobold's lair is at the end of this ravine. You wait here for a moment, I'll climb up the hill and check it out."

After saying this, Gebu took a step to leave, and the female mercenary caught up with him in three quick steps.

"I'll go with you."

"What? Don't you trust me? Afraid I'll run away?" Gebu joked.

The woman nodded without hesitation.

Gebu's smile froze awkwardly.

...That's quite honest of you, I admire you, woman.

Geb scratched his head, pretending nothing had happened. He turned and started to walk up the slope, with the swordswoman close behind him, leaving the dwarf standing there in a daze at the bottom of the hill.

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On the hillside, Gebu buried his body in the fallen leaves, leaving only one eye showing.

The woman hid behind a tree, wearing two foxtail grasses on her head as a token gesture.

Below the hillside, several kobolds were busy in a makeshift camp. The camp was cluttered with boxes and miscellaneous items, and in the center, the little guys had piled up a crudely made statue.

A paper head, a clay body, animal bone claws, rag wings, and a stick tail.

This thing was quite large compared to the kobolds. At its feet was a small pile of fleshy bones, on top of which was a layer of severed limbs, and on top of those limbs were several bloody human heads... a horrifying pyramid of flesh and blood.

A dog-headed man wearing a leather hat walked up to the pyramid, looked left and right, straightened the head, and then pried open the mouth of the head with his hand—trying to make a smile.

The dead man's mouth opened and then closed again.

The kobold scratched his head, picked up a hand from the severed limbs, snapped off the fingers, and stuffed them into the man's jaw to pry open his mouth.

The human head was smiling eerily.

The kobold looked at his masterpiece, nodded, and walked away satisfied.

Are these dog-headed men worshipping this statue?

What... is this thing?

The statue's wings looked like a dragon (Gebu had only seen it in books—and the quality of the illustrations was so-so... just barely recognizable), but its face resembled a human's, and its mane was like a lion's—this monster was covered in thorns, and its tail had a barb as thick as a wrist, like a scorpion's tail.

Abstract Wild Animals.

"A manticore?" the swordswoman murmured.

"What's a manticore?" Gebu asked. "Seriously, it's so abstract, how can you even recognize it?"

"Back in my hometown, I witnessed my father and brothers hunting this beast—a human-faced lion with a mane, dragon wings, and a scorpion's tail. Its entire body was a weapon of death. In addition to its sharp teeth and claws, its tail stinger contained deadly poison. If you were stung and bled, your body would immediately fester and you would die."

Gebu thought for a moment, and it seemed that the recipe for the "mysterious poison" from the old elf lady at the Seven Seas Pharmacy contained such an ingredient: scorpion stinger.

"It's pretty scary, but why would a group of kobolds worship a manticore?"

The woman glanced at Geb: "How should I know? Maybe its wings reminded them of dragons."

Kobolds do worship dragons, but they really have nothing to do with dragons... Is it enough to be even remotely related?

Geb snorted. These idiots…

"Damn it, you idiot dog-headed man."

The two of them spoke at the same time.

Gebu and the swordswoman looked at each other, stared at each other for a moment, and then looked away.

Perhaps because of their shared hatred for kobolds, the atmosphere between the two seemed to have eased somewhat.

The swordswoman remained silent. Taking this opportunity, Geb counted the enemies in the camp:

One, two, three, four, five... ten in total. The one wearing the fur hat looks like the leader.

Gebu intently observed the kobolds' actions, pondering how to outmaneuver them.

The woman with the sword was staring at Geb's face.

"Gebu...you're called Gebu, right? Haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

"Hmm?" Geb turned to look at the woman.

In that instant, he suddenly recognized the female mercenary in front of him.

Isn't that... that poor guy I met at the homeless market? The one who couldn't afford the potion?

I wondered why he looked so familiar... turns out we'd met once before.

Seeing the woman's curious gaze, Geb felt somewhat uncomfortable—the magic of this mask was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people, but the goblin was simply too guilty.

...Quickly change the subject.

"Uh... I don't really remember—you must be mistaken." Geb quickly looked towards the kobold camp. "Ah, the kobolds have moved."

"Hmm?" The woman turned her head down the slope.

The kobolds worked together to pull a broken cage out of a pile of rubbish. One of the little kobolds squatted down and fiddled with the lock for a long time, but he couldn't open it.

Finally, the kobold wearing the leather hat lost his patience, kicked away the lock-picking kobold, picked up a stone, and smashed the lock off.

It reached into the cage, and after some tugging, pulled out a little human girl with tears streaming down her face!