Chapter 220 - 220 Pick up the scent, please! part 7

220 Pick up the scent, please! part “Long time no see, Grok!”

“Yes, yes, no time to talk, help us find Bardun.”

“Don’t worry, that’s precisely why I’m here. I’ll need you to give me all the information I need, but first, did you happen to run into a wounded human female by chance?”

“I didn’t run over her, I captured her. She tried to do something weird, she will be made a servant, but if you want her as wife I can give it to you”

“She’s not a thing you stupid mongrel!”

Luke placed his hand on the side of his sash were his short sword was supposed to be, but there was nothing he could use as a weapon. Less than three seconds afterwards, Luke was pinned to the ground by several goblins who jumped on top of him trying to keep him from harming me or Grok, meanwhile I was facepalming at his hot headed behavior.

“Luke, can you just stay calm... seriously, these guys are friends”

“Mhmhm mh mhmh”

“Yes, they are better than the guys from the sacred empire”

.....

Bob laughed at Luke’s words. I have no idea how was he able to understand him though.

Relieved after finding out that they did, in fact, take care of Lea’s wounds and she was in good shape, we were taken to the goblin camp.

Unfortunately for everyone, there was little to no food, almost no clean water and most of the goblins were tired or hurt.

“What happened here?”

“Beasts from the north went crazy, we have been fighting non stop for days.”

“Why don’t you guys let them through then?”

“Impossible, Bardun’s commands were clear, we are to stop anything that tries to go south this camp.”

“What happened to him?”

“He went hunting for food, but never come back!”

Grok looked really troubled, I guess goblins can’t function without a leader after all.

“That’s terrible, how long has it been?”

“Twelve hours!”

“Hey Ryu, if it’s only twelve hours it shouldn’t be that bad...”

Risa barged in, she was completely fine with helping goblins after I explained everyone about my relationship with goblins on the way to the camp.

“Not really miss Risa, goblins are pretty good hunters. They either win and come back or they lose and never return. If they’re late to return, it can only mean he lost and is probably dead, you know.”

Mia pointed out.

“Mia, please don’t say bad things like that. I could agree with you if it was any other goblin, but Bardun is a lot more resourceful and doesn’t fear thinking outside the box”

The goblin camp consisted on many buildings on ground level, made entirely with sturdy monster parts, bones, skin, tails, even claws and fangs. It looked like a war camp, it was a heavy contrast with the goblin village’s peaceful aura.

“Grok, I need a building on the rooftops, make it look like the restaurant on the village. Also, bring me the best class bones, fangs and claws you have available and don’t forget the food.”

“Will you be cooking for us tonight?”

A goblin in the crowd asked blatantly.

“I will.”

As I replied, a loud cheer was heard in the whole camp. They started jumping and high fiving in between them. Their exhaustion was exchanged into a wild celebration as they started to gather the materials for the building on the tree tops. The method was easy enough, but it took time to build, and in the meantime I readied myself to cook.

The pile of ingredients the goblins presented to me was less than enough to feed the entire camp. To say it was enough even for only the humans present would be a stretch, but it was better than nothing.

Six potatoes, a basket of mushrooms, two baskets of wild berries and a deer they hunted previously.

“Is this everything you have? did you eat things raw again?”

“This is everything we were able to get, we know better than to eat ingredients raw, of course we cooked them! but there’s just not enough food around to sustain us”

Grok snorted.

“But you said you have been fighting all this time, how come you don’t even have enough meat”

“I’m telling the truth. Beasts that act weird can’t be consumed, they taste bad even when cooked and many goblins became sick after trying them. We lost most of our supplies trying to find a way to eat them properly”

“Can you show me one of these corpses please?”

The goblin took me to a pile of dead beasts, they had already been skinned so I couldn’t really recognize any of them, but there was something weird.

Even though most corpses do have a bit of mana, the mana present in those was a lot stronger than it was supposed to be. It was so dense, it felt almost as if they were still alive.

It wasn’t until I used my identify skill that I got my answer.

>Magical beast corpse

“These aren’t regular beasts! they’re magical beasts!”

I said as I ran to wake up Luke who had fallen asleep waiting for the meal.

“Luke, do you know anything about magical beasts?”

He opened his eyes abruptly after being woken up, but he had no answer to my question. I thought he may know something because he was always talking about his deep knowledge on fantasy worlds, but he said how things might be really different from what he knew and didn’t dare say anything about them. Unfortunately for my companions, this was an important matter that needed to be settled as soon as possible so I was forced to wake each of them up, however, the result was the same.

No one knew a thing about magical beasts.

Not wanting to risk getting sick after consuming bad meat, I had no choice but to give up and start cooking with what I had at hand, I boiled the potatoes and the berries separately. After pouring the juice that came out of the berries on several containers I mixed them with the potatoes and mashed them together.

I cooked the mushrooms with the berry juice, then added the deer meat and made a soup.

It was the most efficient way of sharing the meal with everyone. Even if it was only a little, every goblin got their share of the stew. Us, instead, had to share a slice of a breadlike cake that was the result of mixing the berries and potatoes, then cooking it up directly over the fire.

It smelled delicious, but I was certain that it would be nowhere near enough to replenish our lost stamina, especially that of those who were healed by Helena.

Then, someone I didn’t expect, joined me in front of the fire following the delicious scent that came out from the campfire.

“Lea, I-”

“I heard you were asking about magical beasts, I’ll answer all of your questions if you give me that piece of bread”