Goblin Merchants

The first thing she thought of was changing its shape, turning the ice ball into an ice cone.

The damage indeed increased, adding piercing and slow effects, but it still wasn't enough. What she wanted was a control skill.

Freezing someone directly into a giant block of ice should count as a form of control, right?

Wu Yao had the water elements turn into a cloud of mist the moment they hit, while the low-temperature core on the outer layer operated simultaneously. The result was a flurry of falling snowflakes.

This wasn't the effect she wanted at all!

Wu Yao scratched her head. She couldn't mobilize that many water elements yet, so it seemed she could only manage localized freezing.

Wu Yao wanted to build a combat skill library to launch targeted strikes against different enemy traits.

Area-of-effect, single-target, piercing, and crowd-control damage—the skeleton of her skill library was already established.

Of course, the biggest limitation right now was that she hadn't mastered enough elemental types. If only she had some wind, lightning, and metal elements too.

Sigh, this game was really to her taste. Although the games she played in the past boasted about free magic construction, they actually still had preset skill libraries. No matter how you created, there was always a limit.

But she didn't know how this game was built; it was truly completely free, with every step created by her own hands. Who could refuse that?

She could even combine water and fire elements to trigger a steam explosion!

Completely immersed in the joy of creation, she didn't notice the slowly setting sun and the gradually rising Bright Moon.

It wasn't until her stamina bar flashed red again that she hastily pulled out a Simple Bread. The moment she bit down, her jaw was nearly jarred by its impressive hardness.

Well, thankfully she didn't have her pain sensation turned on.

The bread clacked hard against her palm, feeling like it had been dead for a very long time.

Relying on her good teeth, Wu Yao forcefully tore off a tiny corner with her canines. The dry crumbs choked her all the way from her mouth down to her throat, nearly suffocating her on the spot.

Just as she was desperately pounding her chest to force the mouthful of bread down, two pumpkins suddenly grew out of the ground.

No, they weren't pumpkins. They looked like heads—round and dusty, with words floating above them.

【Goblin Merchant · Tiechui】 and 【Goblin Merchant · Tongque】

Oh, NPCs. It was her first time seeing such a unique way of appearing... Wait!

Merchants!

Was the player shop finally going to open?!

Were her gold and silver coins finally going to be put to use?!

In an instant, Wu Yao threw all thoughts of spells and creation to the wind. She eagerly grabbed one of the heads and pulled upward, fully demonstrating her warm hospitality.

“Oh my, is your head stuck? Don't worry, I'm here to help you!”

“Help, help, help! It feels like she's going to pluck my head off—”

Wu Yao's strength was astonishingly immense. Tiechui felt as if her neck were clamped by iron pincers, and she was yanked straight out of the dirt by sheer, brute force.

Soil clung to her dusty round face, and her two large ears were pressed completely flat against her scalp out of sheer terror.

“W-Wait—” Tiechui flailed her short, stubby limbs, trying to grab onto anything to stop her ascent, her brown eyes reflecting Wu Yao's face drawing closer and closer.

“I'm afraid of heights! I'm afraid of heights! I'm afraid of heights!”

Wu Yao was thoroughly immersed in the joy of finally meeting merchant NPCs. Her hands didn't stop; after pulling Tiechui completely out of the soil, she carefully placed her on the ground.

“Sister!” Tongque wanted to run away in fear, but she couldn't bear to leave her older sister. Caught in a dilemma, her head was suddenly cupped by a hand.

“Help!”

“Don't rush, I'll help you right away,” Wu Yao said with a smile as she applied force.

“Ah, my hairstyle—”

The second goblin merchant was also pulled out. Tongque's ochre curls were covered in dirt. The moment her feet touched the ground, she buried her face straight into her sister's embrace.

Tiechui caught her steadily, patting her back soothingly with both hands while her eyes secretly sized up the terrifying witch before her.

Wu Yao squatted halfway down, resting her hands on her knees as she tilted her head to study the two merchants she had just pulled from the dirt.

The two NPCs only reached up to her thighs, appearing to be just over a meter tall. Their gray skin looked rather unremarkable.

However, their pair of large ears was quite eye-catching—broad pinnae with slightly drooping tips, resembling the ears of some large dog breed.

Their noses were a bit red, and their eyes were amber, blinking at an extremely rapid pace right now.

“So this is what goblins look like? Gray skin, big ears, and short?” Wu Yao gestured curiously.

Her Compendium had newly unlocked the 'goblin' race, but the information inside was still blank. She needed to collect it herself, and correct information would automatically populate the Compendium.

Evidently, this part of the information was correct.

Tiechui's ears perked up with a whoosh. As a legitimate merchant registered with the Topaz Trading Company, she could accept being robbed, deceived, or expelled, but she would never allow goblin dignity to be trampled upon!

“What do you mean, 'look like this'!” She scrambled to her feet and glared at Wu Yao with her hands on her hips. Although she had to look up to meet Wu Yao's gaze, this did not diminish her imposing aura in the slightest.

“This is the most perfect form! Gray skin is a gift from Mother Earth. Why do you think we can live underground? Our skin is the best armor, while you humans have skin that can't even block a knife!”

“Big ears allow us to precisely locate sounds!” She raised a hand to pat her ears, saying proudly, “We can hear the sound of a gold coin hitting the ground a hundred li away, and we can distinguish which frequency a sound belongs to. As for our height, it is the condensed essence of our species, giving us unparalleled mobility in narrow tunnels!”

The more she spoke, the more excited she became, spit flying everywhere, completely forgetting that she had been shivering with fear just a few minutes ago.

“We have thousands of years of commercial civilization! Since the era of the Golden Moon, goblins have established a trade network spanning the entire continent. When you humans were still using seashells as currency, we had already invented credit vouchers and futures trading! Not to mention, our intelligence network covers the continent, and even the Mage Association's black market—”

“Sister!” Tongque yanked her hard. Her voice wasn't loud, but the word was short and sharp, cutting off Tiechui's words like a pair of scissors.

With the last syllable of her word still hanging on the tip of her tongue, Tiechui abruptly shut her mouth, her ears flattening against her scalp at a visible rate.

But the witch in front of her didn't seem to notice this slip of the tongue at all, currently rummaging through her Inventory with great interest.

“So, can you trade? Let me see... Do you want Rotten Flesh? And Mana Cores... wait, I need those myself. Let's just trade a little bit...”

“Of course!” Tiechui replied reflexively, her professional instincts bypassing her vocal cords to take direct control of her body. “The Topaz Trading Company provides a full range of commercial services, from basic supplies to rare materials, from intelligence consultation to logistics and transport. As long as you can pay the price—”

Tongque didn't know how her sister could still promote the trading company so skillfully and boldly. She huddled beside her sister, shivering while observing.

This witch wore the simplest robe, with no unique witch-like traits visible on her. The mana fluctuations across her body were almost nonexistent, making her look quite friendly at first glance—wait, no! She could burn a Stitched Abomination to ashes with a wave of her hand! Why on earth do I find her friendly?!