Atop the Mound, Rage!

Matthew quickly made his way up the mound, his eyes sweeping across the battlefield.

The kobold priest's corpse lay in a pool of blood, the gruesome wound on its neck shocking to behold. The air was thick with the mixed stench of blood and burning.

Matthew withdrew his gaze and rushed to Instructor Calm's side, still feeling a bit anxious. Nothing must happen to this pillar of our team.

However, Instructor Calm was in better shape than he had expected.

Although his breathing was slightly heavy and his leather armor was stained with blood and scorch marks, the hand holding his sword remained steady. His eyes were sharp, and his presence hadn't faltered despite the fierce battle. Clearly, he still had plenty of stamina and had suffered no serious external injuries.

Matthew felt a bit more at ease, thinking to himself, The instructor really is experienced. In the wild, conserving stamina should always be the priority.

At the same time, he committed this lesson to heart.

Seeing Matthew approach, Instructor Calm lowered his voice and asked with a solemn expression, “How strong is Brody? If you were to fight him one-on-one, would you be confident?”

Matthew was taken aback. After a brief moment of thought, he gave his assessment:

“Brody hasn't been using his full strength, but if it's just a matter of holding him off, there's absolutely no problem.”

He paused, choosing not to fully voice his deeper thoughts.

In truth, once his 【Basic Swordsmanship】 reached the Practiced level, his physical attributes would improve significantly, and his swordsmanship would step up to another level. Taking down Brody would be a breeze.

But he didn't say this out loud. After all, the other party was a noble, so it was only normal for him to have some cards up his sleeve.

Besides, Matthew wasn't one to buckle under pressure!

Just as Instructor Calm, deep in thought after hearing Matthew's response, seemed about to advise him further—

“What happened?!”

A roar filled with shock, anger, and disbelief suddenly exploded from the other side of the mound!

It was Brody's voice.

Matthew and Instructor Calm immediately looked toward the sound. They saw Brody standing beside the kobold priest's corpse, his face livid, staring fixedly at the shattered remains of the staff on the ground, its dark red crystal completely devoid of light.

Matthew and Instructor Calm exchanged a look and quickly walked over.

By the time they neared, the shock and anger on Brody's face from the shattered staff had been forcibly suppressed. However, his chest was still rising and falling slightly, and the veins on the back of his hand gripping the hilt were bulging.

“Mr. Calm's combat strength is truly outstanding. Thanks to you just now.”

Brody looked up, his gaze sweeping over the two of them before lingering slightly on Instructor Calm. A forced smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“Once we finish clearing the battlefield, I will settle the final payment with you.”

Matthew watched closely from the side, slightly surprised. This Brody is surprisingly patient.

Seeing that what he had anticipated didn't happen, he felt a slight pang of disappointment. After all, that staff was worth a fortune.

Meanwhile...

Noticing that Instructor Calm had been silent for a long time, Matthew turned to look at him.

The instructor's originally upright posture had slouched slightly. The hand holding his sword drooped a bit as if drained of strength, and a fitting touch of exhaustion and paleness appeared on his face.

Hearing this, Calm didn't object. He simply nodded in agreement with Brody's words, his voice carrying a perfectly measured trace of fatigue and hoarseness:

“Young Master Brody flatters me. I was merely doing my duty. Being able to successfully deal with this priest was also thanks to Mr. Flynn drawing its attention from the front, as well as everyone's joint efforts.”

As for the final payment, he didn't even mention it, which meant he tacitly accepted the arrangement.

The four of them exchanged a few more pleasantries before dispersing to clean up the battlefield.

This was also an unwritten rule of the wilderness: when the danger had not been fully resolved, one had to gather loot as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Firstly, to ensure safety; secondly, to avoid immediate disputes over the distribution of loot, which could affect the team's unity and subsequent actions.

The actual division of spoils would usually wait until they had left the dangerous area and reached a relatively safe environment. Only then would they carefully count and distribute them based on the total value of the loot, each person's contribution in battle, and their prior agreement.

As for whether anyone would secretly pocket some items, that remained to be seen.

Just as Matthew and Calm were about to turn away, Instructor Calm, pretending to adjust his leather armor, spoke extremely quickly in a volume only the two of them could hear:

“I'll keep an eye on Flynn. Just look after yourself.”

Clearly, as an experienced veteran, he had also noticed something amiss.

Matthew nodded subtly to show he understood.

The two parted ways, and Matthew walked toward the center of the mound alone.

His eyes swept past Brody, who was buried in searching the priest's corpse, and turned toward the dark cave entrance in the center of the mound—the goblin nest.

The kobold priest's staff was already spoken for, and while the ordinary kobold warriors might have some trinkets on them, their value was limited.

But the goblin nest was different.

Based on his previous observations, the kobolds were the attackers, engaging in a fierce battle with the goblins here.

The kobolds' goal was to wipe out the goblins and likely plunder their nest, but the battle had been interrupted by the intervention of Matthew and the others.

This meant that the interior of the goblin nest might not have been thoroughly ransacked by the kobolds yet, and perhaps some of the "treasures" the goblins usually collected still remained...

More importantly, no one was paying attention to that place right now.

The cave entrance was not spacious, barely allowing an adult to enter while bending over.

The walls of the cave were rough dirt and gravel. The smell inside was complex, mixed with the stench of urine, rotting meat, and musk.

Intertwined with the smell of blood and burning wafting from outside, it formed a nauseatingly bizarre odor.

The light inside the cave was extremely dim, with only a bit of daylight filtering through the entrance, barely illuminating a range of a few meters near the mouth.

Further inside lay a heavy, almost solid darkness, like a giant maw waiting to devour anyone who entered.

The air was damp and heavy, carrying the earthy smell of soil and a faint, almost imperceptible scent resembling sulfur.

Matthew paused slightly at the entrance to adjust to the light and smell, straining his ears to listen.

Aside from his own intentionally slowed breathing and heartbeat, there seemed to be no movement from any living creature deep within the cave. There was only a dead silence, accompanied by the faint, dripping sound of water seeping from the rocky walls.

After taking about a dozen steps, his eyes gradually adjusted to the gloom. Right then, Matthew noticed some palm-sized, irregularly shaped clumps scattered sparsely along the rough dirt-and-stone walls on both sides of the cave.

The surface of these clumps was covered with a thick layer of a special type of moss, which was emitting an extremely faint yet clearly visible pale green fluorescence.

Glowing moss? Matthew was slightly surprised.

Although things like fireflies existed in his previous life, those were at least living organisms. What on earth was this glowing moss clump?

Perhaps it was a special plant that had evolved over a long period in the dark environment, or maybe it was influenced by some weak magical power.

Out of caution and curiosity, Matthew stopped and used the tip of his sword to carefully pry a small piece of the glowing moss clump off the wall.

However, the moment the moss detached from the wall, the pale green glow on it abruptly went out like a snuffed candle. It quickly darkened, completely vanishing within a mere two or three seconds, turning into an ordinary, damp clump of dark green moss.

Matthew shook his head and casually discarded the dull clump of moss.