This high goblin thought he was still alive because he had shouted about the ogre lords earlier.
Looking at this cowardly yet somewhat cunning and foolish high goblin before him, Tang Zheng shook his head slightly.
"Even with intelligence comparable to humans," he mused, "the lack of awareness and other factors still leaves them utterly stupid. Can't even assess basic situations properly, yet tries to threaten others."
Tang Zheng chuckled softly before suddenly raising his leg to kick the high goblin in the chest.
The high goblin wailed as its body slammed against a large tree behind it. The impact reopened wounds that hadn't fully healed, sending waves of excruciating pain through its body.
"I won't dare anymore, human lord!"
The high goblin's shrill voice echoed through the forest.
"You're being noisy," Tang Zheng said coldly, hefting his iron sword as he stepped forward. "Keep making noise and I'll finish you."
Hearing this, the high goblin immediately covered its mouth with both hands, shrinking against the tree trunk and trembling violently. Its black pupils were filled with terror.
Tang Zheng stopped before the creature, looking down at the cowering goblin before nodding approvingly. "Good. This means we can communicate properly now."
"Y-yes, human l-lord," the goblin stammered.
"Human lord, I am called Woodfruit."
"Yes, I... I like eating fruits from trees, so I got this name. This is—"
Tang Zheng waved impatiently to cut off the goblin's rambling. "Enough nonsense. Tell me why you're here."
"I... I..." The high goblin hesitated.
"Don't think about hiding anything. I know you're from a high goblin tribe called the Jike Tribe," Tang Zheng said coldly, observing the goblin's reaction.
At the mention of "Jike Tribe," Woodfruit trembled violently. Fear and despair washed over its face as it realized this human warrior somehow knew about its tribe.
Immediately, the high goblin began babbling out everything in terrified confession. The classic goblin traits of cunning, cowardice, and timidity were on full display.
The situation wasn't complicated. June and July were peak breeding seasons for goblins. However, high goblins had much greater difficulty reproducing compared to regular goblins.
Thus, high goblins would mate with regular goblins to more easily produce offspring—though most would just be ordinary goblins. Still, this method had significantly higher success rates than high goblin pairs mating.
Woodfruit had come to the outer regions to select healthy, superior specimens among the regular goblins to bring back to the Jike Tribe for better breeding. That's when it encountered Tang Zheng, who was slaughtering goblins. After confirming Tang Zheng was alone, the subsequent events unfolded.
During Woodfruit's frantic explanations, Tang Zheng also gleaned information about the goblin's abilities.
Innate Talent: [Player]
Basic Occupations: Genius Lv.1 (Warrior, Priestess/Priest, Alchemist, Magician, Thief, Guerrilla Fighter, Forest Priest)
Intermediate Occupation: Sword Saint Lv.10
Passive Skills: Item Box, Slash Enhancement (10%)
Warrior: Instant Reflex, Four Light Combo Slash, Swift Strike, Stealth, Tracking
Magic: Papermaking (Tier 1), Heating (Tier 1), Minor Healing (Tier 1), Magic Arrow (Tier 1), Odorless (Tier 1), Camouflage (Tier 1)
Professional Skills: Pharmacy, Alchemy
Cost: None (10s cooldown)
Description: Uses residual traces to determine direction and physique of target being tracked.
Skill: Camouflage (Tier 1)
Description: Uses magic to blend with surroundings, lowering presence. Effect is stronger in jungle environments.
Contrary to Tang Zheng's initial assumptions, Woodfruit's occupation information represented the less likely scenario he had considered. It wasn't a Druid, but rather had dual basic occupations as a Guerrilla Fighter and Forest Priest.
This surprised Tang Zheng—he hadn't expected a mere goblin to possess the Forest Priest occupation. From their brief skirmish, he could easily tell this high goblin's levels in both Forest Priest and Guerrilla Fighter weren't high, probably not exceeding Lv.7.
Guerrilla Fighters specialized in scouting, exploration, and archery. Most forest-dwelling demi-humans like elves could obtain this occupation. The Tracking skill was quite basic, but still somewhat useful to Tang Zheng. More advanced skills were beyond this goblin's capabilities.
As for the Camouflage magic, Tang Zheng felt conflicted. While effective in jungles, its performance elsewhere was mediocre at best—far inferior to the more versatile second-tier magic spell Invisibility from the arcane school.
Still, since Forest Priest was a relatively rare basic occupation, Tang Zheng decided to acquire both skills from Woodfruit.
After obtaining these two basic occupations from the high goblin, Tang Zheng didn't feel particularly pleased. Instead, he frowned slightly.
He had noticed earlier that when Woodfruit was fleeing, the dense jungle environment seemed to pose no obstacle—trees and bushes appeared to move aside automatically. Such an ability shouldn't be innate to high goblins.
Under Tang Zheng's impassive gaze, Woodfruit cowered at the base of the tree trunk. Its pained green face twisted with reluctance and deep anguish before it slowly removed a necklace made from some unusually tough vine.
Hanging from the necklace was a white, bone-like object about the size of a ping-pong ball. The item resembled some animal's bone—Tang Zheng wouldn't have noticed it if the goblin hadn't deliberately taken it off, having assumed it was just some bone ornament commonly worn by demi-humans.
"Human lord, this is a treasure of our Jike Tribe," Woodfruit said, presenting the ancient-looking necklace with both hands in a gesture of submission.
The high goblin understood perfectly that its life hung by a thread in this human's hands. Any displeasure could mean instant death.