“Found it?!”
“Yes, I’ll take you there.”
Upon hearing this, Chen Bugu’s face lit up with joy, and he burst forth with incredible speed, arriving beside Lin Ye, leaving Han Badou standing alone, holding three yun ling fruits.
“Where is the Goblin Blacksmith?”
Chen Bugu was indeed curious; the Goblin tribe wasn’t large, and at his current speed, he could explore the entire area in five or six minutes.
He had already investigated and found no trace of a Goblin Blacksmith.
However, the weapons used by the Goblin Berserkers were clearly processed, and Chen Bugu was the first to disbelieve that this tribe had no Goblin Blacksmith.
“He’s hidden underground in a wooden house. Thanks to Yan Kuan noticing that the Earth Element in that particular area was unusually abnormal, we were able to discover something was amiss.”
Underground?
Chen Bugu had indeed never seen blacksmiths of other races in his previous life, but shouldn’t iron smelting require a place with good ventilation? Why would it be chosen to be underground?
As they conversed, the two had already arrived at a wooden house.
Chen Bugu had entered this wooden house before. At this moment, the Luo Beast fur that had been covering the ground had been lifted and tossed aside, revealing a large pit below.
Chen Bugu suddenly realized, so it was hidden underneath all along.
The pit had simple steps dug into it; although rough, they were barely traversable.
After descending into the pit, Chen Bugu discovered that the passage was extremely narrow, only wide enough for one person to bend over and pass through.
The temperature in the passage subtly rose, and the soil on both sides had long since been dried out.
After stealthily moving dozens of steps, Chen Bugu finally emerged from the narrow passage into an underground secret chamber.
The secret chamber was not large, about sixty to seventy square meters, and four meters high, no longer as cramped as before.
At this moment, Bai Ting and Yan Kuan were already there. On the ground in front of them, a Goblin was impaled through its limbs by several earth spikes, unable to move.
This Goblin appeared short, only one meter tall, with a face full of wrinkles, looking quite old, but its entire body was muscular, presenting a beautiful display of strength.
Now subdued on the ground, it was still chattering about something, incomprehensibly.
“What’s going on?”
Chen Bugu looked at Bai Ting and Yan Kuan.
“Black Iron Three Stars, very strong. Wang Bin was the first one down and fought with this Goblin. He had his hand broken by its hammer and has already gone up to find Lin Lin.”
Wang Bin was injured? No wonder Lin Ye said he wanted to go see Wang Bin and didn't follow them down.
Chen Bugu then noticed that there was a hammerhead on the ground not far away, which should belong to this Goblin.
This hammerhead was different from the iron hammers used by modern people; it was made of stone, connected to a metal handle.
Looking around the secret chamber, there was a smelting furnace and some inexplicable stones, clearly resembling a blacksmith's shop.
There was a strange wooden device blocking a corner of the ceiling. Chen Bugu moved it aside and found some murky liquid instantly flowing down.
He instantly understood the purpose of this device. It seemed to be used to guide cooling water. So, the water in that murky pit above was prepared for this guy?
All the weapons in the tribe were likely made by him.
Killing any professional blacksmith of an intelligent race can grant a blacksmith's inheritance; this is also part of the plunder.
Professional plunder can only be performed once per person. Although the blacksmith profession is not considered powerful, almost every faction will need a blacksmith in the future.
Whether it's equipment repair, enhancement, modification, or crafting, blacksmiths are essentially indispensable.
Chen Bugu looked at the Goblin Blacksmith, now lying on the ground, and slowly made up his mind. He raised his arm high, and the Wind Gale Dagger appeared at the opportune moment.
Just as Chen Bugu was about to swing his knife.
A voice appeared in his mind again.
“Don’t take the Blacksmith.”
Again!
It wasn’t the robotic voice from when he awakened or broke through!
This tone was… Tiancheng City First Hospital! The sigh he heard when he was in a hallucination!
Chen Bugu instantly froze, his hair standing on end.
The other party had been watching him all along!
The other party was still by his side?
“Who are you!?”
Chen Bugu suddenly yelled, startling Yan Kuan and Bai Ting.
However, when they realized the content of Chen Bugu's words, they instantly reacted and immediately entered combat mode.
Bai Ting and Yan Kuan stood behind Chen Bugu with a tacit understanding, the three of them back-to-back, leaning on each other in a triangular formation, guarding against all directions.
“What’s going on?”
“Where’s the enemy?”
Yan Kuan and Bai Ting spoke almost simultaneously. It was clear that they were deeply wary of an enemy who could appear around them without a sound.
“I don’t know either, I just heard his voice.”
“But I didn’t hear anything, Bai Ting, did you?”
Yan Kuan’s hands remained on the ground as he looked back at Bai Ting, who also shook his head.
Sound transmission?
Does the other party also have an ability similar to Han Badou’s?
Chen Bugu held the Rapid Wind Dagger in front of his chest, purple light swirling in his eyes. Breaking was activated, and his eye gene lock's Inference and Weakness Detection were fully open, but the world before him remained unchanged.
Not a hallucination? But no enemy either? What is going on?
Chen Bugu even suspected it might be the Goblin Blacksmith on the ground, but it was clearly impossible for it to be the other party.
After a two-minute standoff, the voice did not reappear in Chen Bugu's mind.
He slowly lowered the Wind Gale Dagger in his hand.
“He should no longer be in the vicinity.”
Yan Kuan and Bai Ting both breathed a sigh of relief, asking Chen Bugu what exactly was going on, but Chen Bugu himself couldn't explain it clearly.
Upon closer thought, at Tiancheng City First Hospital, that sigh had actually saved his life.
But Chen Bugu still couldn't figure it out; he really disliked this feeling of being out of control.
After a few more minutes, still no unusual phenomena occurred, and Chen Bugu finally truly relaxed.
“What should we do with this guy?”
Yan Kuan pointed at the Goblin Blacksmith. Chen Bugu had said to capture him first and not kill him until he arrived.
After this interlude, Chen Bugu also started to hesitate.
Ultimately, he chose not to kill the Goblin Blacksmith himself and told Yan Kuan and Bai Ting about the professional plunder, leaving the decision to them.
The reason he did this was, first, because Chen Bugu temporarily chose to trust that Mysterious person. After all, if the other party truly wanted to harm him, they could have simply remained silent at Tiancheng City First Hospital and let him die in the hallucination, making any extra effort unnecessary.
Although he didn't know how the other party did it, Chen Bugu's intuition told him that the automatic activation of Breaking that time was probably also related to that Mysterious person.
The second point was because Chen Bugu had realized that since he had chosen not to rely on any faction in this life, the advantage of a blacksmith was not significant for him.
Although there are almost no combat professions in this world, special professions are diverse, and some have miraculous effects on enhancing abilities. It's better to wait.
After explaining the matter of professional plunder, Bai Ting readily refused. His meaning was that if there truly was a profession, he would rather choose to continue being a merchant than a blacksmith.
Yan Kuan, on the other hand, remained silent, seemingly contemplating something.
“I’ll do it. Your team needs a blacksmith.”
Yan Kuan thought for a long time before looking back at Chen Bugu.
“My team, huh…”
Chen Bugu keenly noticed Yan Kuan's choice of words and asked again.
“Fatty, are you sure? If you’re doing this to thank me for giving you the Great Earth Blacksmith, I think you might be mistaken. Those shoes just happened to suit you. If they suited someone else, I would never have given them to you.”
Chen Bugu said unfeelingly. To be honest, given his past relationship with Yan Kuan in his previous life, he naturally hoped that Yan Kuan would take on this profession. But precisely because of that old friendship, he didn't want Yan Kuan to make a choice blindly.
“It’s okay. I don’t know why, but I feel like following you isn’t bad…”
Chen Bugu looked at Yan Kuan and suddenly smiled.
“Alright, fatty blacksmith, please proceed.”
The next second, several massive earth spikes pierced through the Goblin Blacksmith’s head.
A robotic voice also appeared in Yan Kuan’s mind.
“Detecting plunderable profession: Great Earth Blacksmith.”
“Plunder?”
“Yes!”