Following the direction indicated by Zhang Xuchu's team, The two sisters trekked through the gloomy dense forest.
That scent of mixed strawberry and jasmine finally faded after Celeste cast her fifth cleansing water ball to scrub herself clean.
The cost was that she now smelled like a bar of strawberry-scented soap that had been soaked in water.
"Sister, what do you think that 'moonlight moss' actually looks like? Does it really glow?"
Selene asked curiously as she used her shield to push aside the thick, hanging vines in front of her.
"The data says it gives off a pearl-like luster under moonlight and is the main ingredient for making high-level calming potions."
Celeste recalled the "Illustrated Guide to Common Domain Resources" she had crammed before the exam, "I just hope the monster guarding it isn't too outrageous."
To avoid potential swamp gases and lurking creatures, they chose to head upstream along a babbling forest stream.
The river water was crystal clear, revealing the smooth pebbles on the bed, bringing a rare touch of freshness to this eerie forest.
After walking for about half an hour, Celeste suddenly stopped, her gaze sharp as she looked toward a patch of wet mud on the riverbank.
"Selene, look there."
Selene followed the direction she pointed and saw several unnatural marks on the mud.
They were definitely not beast paw prints; they looked more like traces left by some... crude boots. The size was only equivalent to a human child's, but the toe area was splayed very wide.
"People?" Selene became instantly alert, subconsciously holding her kite shield in front of her.
"Doesn't look like it." Celeste crouched down to observe carefully.
"The footprints are very chaotic and numerous, but the stride length is very short, not like an adult's. And..."
She pointed with her fingertip at several carelessly discarded, exceptionally clean-gnawed fruit pits in the mud, as well as some crudely peeled tree bark with tooth marks, "The way of eating is very primitive."
She stood up and looked in the direction the footprints extended, towards the deeper, denser part of the jungle where there was almost no path.
"Let's follow and see." Celeste made the decision.
The unknown often means danger, but it can also be accompanied by opportunities. In a Domain, information itself is a type of resource.
The two sisters concealed their presence and tracked along the intermittent traces.
The further they went, the more obvious the signs of artificial activity became—branches crudely broken, markings haphazardly tied with vines, and even a few traps with questionable structures made of stones and sticks.
Selene muttered, "These traps... are they planning to catch prey by being cute? The blocks I built when I was three were more complex than this."
Celeste frowned slightly, "The technique is very crude, but the purpose is very clear. The wisdom of these things might be just a little higher than we thought."
After traveling for another quarter of an hour, when they pushed aside an exceptionally dense patch of thorns, the scene before them stunned The two sisters.
The dense forest suddenly opened up here.
A crooked path, obviously violently cleared, led into the distance.
And at the end of that path, a behemoth stood proudly in a twisted posture.
That thing could perhaps be called a "castle."
But it was more like a giant nest haphazardly piled together with rough logs, mud, vines, and all sorts of trash—including half a rusted sheet of metal, a few broken wooden barrels, and even a piece of suspicious-colored rag hanging on the wall.
It had no aesthetic appeal, was lopsided, and holes in the walls could be seen everywhere, patched with huge leaves.
At the top of the highest "tower," there was even a flag stuck in, doodled with animal hide and unknown dyes, the pattern abstract to the point of post-modernism.
This trash-style "castle" created a violent contrast with the ancient and wild Gloomwood around it, like a three-dimensional art piece improvised by a brat using glue and trash on a world-famous painting.
"What... what is this thing?" Selene's mouth opened into an "O" shape, "Which hobo artist's graduation project is this?"
Just then, a burst of chattering, sharp, and harsh noise came from the direction of the castle.
The two sisters immediately crouched and hid behind a giant tree, quietly peeking out to observe.
They saw the crooked wooden door pushed open with a "bang," and several figures hopped out.
They were only as tall as a normal person's waist, with sickly yellow-green skin, pointed ears, and large noses. They were wrapped in rags and scraps of leather armor, waving wooden sticks, rusted swords, and even sharpened animal bones in their hands.
At this moment, they were gathered in a circle, gesticulating and arguing endlessly over a pile of shiny little things on the ground.
"Ga! Mine! Shiny! Most!" A particularly thin and small green-skinned creature grabbed a few and shrieked.
"Uwa! Stupid Ga! Count wrong! I have more!" Another chubby green-skin pushed it aside and reached out to grab them.
"Jiligulu! Divide! Split evenly!" The third one, which looked slightly "older," held a small wooden stick and tried to draw on the ground, but the lines it drew were crooked. It stared at them for a long time, seemingly unable to figure out how to divide them either.
They argued, shoved, and even pulled each other's sparse hair; the scene was chaotic and comical.
The examination bracelet on Celeste's wrist vibrated slightly, displaying scanned information:
[Forest Goblin Lv.15 - 18]
[Points: 25 / each]
[Characteristics: Gregarious, cowardly but greedy, possesses preliminary tribal civilization and extremely rudimentary tool-making ability, mathematical ability usually does not exceed 5.]
[Note: Synonymous with chaos and noise. Sometimes, noise is their most powerful weapon.]
"Goblins?" Selene lowered her voice, her tone filled with disbelief, "And Forest Goblins at that? These creatures that only appear as negative examples in low-level science books actually exist? And they built a... castle?"
Celeste looked at the group of goblins fighting until their heads were bleeding over a few shards of glass, then looked up at the wooden castle swaying in the wind, her expression becoming very subtle.
She remembered the "moonlight moss" and "powerful guardian" mentioned by Zhang Xuchu's team.
Then she looked at these green-skinned little runts in front of her who struggled to even count.
An absurd thought arose in her heart—could it be that the ones guarding that rare "moonlight moss" are these clowns?
"Sister, what do we do now?" Selene was eager to try, "Rush over and wipe them all out? They don't look very tough."
Celeste shook her head, her gaze falling on the older goblin who was trying to "uphold justice" but was almost confusing itself.
Her lips curled up, the arc hiding a bit of calculation and the fun of watching a show.
"No rush. Have you noticed that although they are noisy, their range of activity is basically centered around that castle, as if they are guarding something."
"And, they seem... particularly interested in those shiny things."
As she spoke, she took out a few complete bee stingers she had collected after killing the poisonous queen bee from her equipment space.
In the dim light, the bee stingers shimmered with a cold metallic luster.
"Perhaps," Celeste weighed the bee stingers in her hand, revealing a smile that was somewhere between "all according to plan" and "mischievous prank."
"We can use a more 'civilized' way to make a deal with them."
Selene looked at the bee stingers in her sister's hand, then at the group of goblins who were about to bash each other's brains out over a few shiny flakes, and suddenly felt that the upcoming scene might be very... joyful.
[Ding! Potential "trading" target discovered (mathematical level questionable), and planning a cross-civilization (?) commercial activity, joy value + 50! Host, please begin your performance; Aha looks forward to seeing a grand farce of people talking past each other!]