That bard is such a charmer!

Chapter 64 Goblins and such, I love them the most!

Are you sick?

Richard noticed at a glance that Mendel looked terrible, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as if he were swallowing something dry. The dwarf Ironhammer next to him was in a similar state, though his symptoms were milder.

Across from them, Levin petted the hounds while explaining, "You guessed right, they have stomach worms."

Richard blinked. "Huh? Professionals like warriors and druids can get sick too?"

In his view, the former has a strong constitution, while the latter naturally has a high affinity for the environment and should have good resistance to relatively weak diseases such as gastric worm disease.

Levin sighed: "The two of them had an oyster-eating contest the night before last. They ate until their stomachs looked like they were pregnant, then got completely drunk and slept on the roadside with the sea breeze blowing all night."

Richard curled his lip.

Oh, that's not surprising.

Anyone would get sick if they did that.

Levin added, "Don't worry too much about them. Thanks to the last mission, we have plenty of funds now and can buy them the best medicine. They'll be fine after taking it for a couple of days, and it won't affect their combat performance."

Iron Hammer seemed to want to prove he could withstand it, so he pounded his chest hard and said in a muffled voice:

"It's just a stomach worm infection. Even without medicine, it can't do anything to me. Our dwarves' stomachs are as strong as steel..."

Mendel looked distressed: "I feel as if the box of oysters I ate earlier has come to life, crawling up my anus, through my large intestine, small intestine, stomach, and esophagus, all sticky and trying to come out of my mouth."

"...Ugh! What do you need such a vivid imagination for!"

Iron Hammer, who had been boasting, instantly lost his composure upon hearing this and gagged.

It seems the steel isn't very good quality, or perhaps the distance from your mouth to your stomach is too short?

Richard couldn't help but laugh out loud and patted Hammer on the shoulder.

Afterwards, everyone packed their things and set off.

Because this trip was to the southeast, there weren't many high mountains along the way, so there wasn't a chance to climb up and look out over the Phoenix coastline again.

In compensation, Richard was able to see vast fields of farmland, and windmills that stood like giants beside them.

A warm breeze blows, and the wheat ripples like waves. The windmills creak and turn, and barefoot children run around in the fields from time to time, making people feel relaxed.

It's a pity.

After walking for another hour, the scenery disappeared.

Instead, there were vast, uninhabited wildernesses, and...

The infamous, most classic monster from countless stories that lurks within—

Goblin!

"Meow!"

"One, two, three... about ten, six on the road, four ambushing in the bushes on the right. They are all the most common low-level goblins, their only weapons are stones, clubs and rusty knives, no bows and arrows."

Levin and his animal companions carefully observed their surroundings and reported their findings to their teammates.

Richard immediately took out his lute, ready to buff everyone.

However, Levin reached out and stopped him again.

"There's no need for that, David. This number doesn't even qualify as a battle."

He gave a confident smile and took out an oddly shaped hand crossbow from his backpack. It was small in size and had a rectangular receiver on top of the crossbow mechanism.

Richard asked curiously, "What is this?"

Hammer chimed in, "He bought this treasure with his quest rewards. It's called something like the Moonfire Repeating Crossbow, and it works really well against weak monsters in groups..."

Whoosh whoosh!

As he spoke, Levin fired his crossbow.

Four silver light arrows shot out in quick succession, hitting the four goblins who were lying in ambush in less than a few seconds. One of them was wearing an iron helmet, but it was no use. The arrows pierced through the helmet and the forehead!

"Gah!"

Upon seeing this, the goblins on the road ahead were terrified and scattered in all directions.

At this moment, Mendel used Entanglement, conjuring up a large amount of vines and weeds to slow down the goblins.

Taking advantage of the situation, Levin changed the receiver, or rather the quiver, and fired two more volleys of bolts, quickly wiping out the goblins.

"Hmm~"

After finishing, Levin proudly raised his crossbow, turned to Iron Hammer, and said, "You're wrong. It's not only effective against weak monsters, but also against armored enemies!"

Iron Hammer muttered, "That's because the goblins' equipment was too poor. It's obviously rusty scraps they picked up. If it were a finely crafted helmet forged by us dwarves, it wouldn't have been shot through..."

Richard stared in astonishment.

He felt that this thing was similar to a pistol.

If it were him, he would also need to be shielded with a diamond shield and have his beast intuition maxed out before he would dare to take a hit.

He immediately used his Eye of Insight:

Name: Moonfire Repeating Crossbow (Can be charmed)

Grade: Excellent

Description: Crafted by humans and elves, this crossbow can fire four times consecutively and consumes a small amount of the user's stamina to imbue the bolts with Silver Moon Demon Fire, making it extremely dangerous to low-level professionals and monsters.

Yoho.

It can even be alluring!

First I encountered the collar, and the next day I encountered the crossbow. My luck has been pretty good lately.

Richard's eyebrows curved into crescent moons.

On the other side, Levin walked around, carefully retrieved most of the crossbow bolts he had fired, cleaned them thoroughly, and treasured them as he put them back into his pouch.

At this moment, Richard walked over and said, "Your crossbow is indeed powerful. May I take a look?"

Levin was slightly taken aback.

For some reason, Richard's gaze seemed strange, making him inexplicably resistant.

Richard smiled and said, "Don't be so stingy. Do you think I'd just snatch it and then stand up and kick it?"

Levin thought about it and realized that made sense.

It's just a matter of teammates checking each other's gear, what's the big deal? As for standing up to wind up the gear, um, do you mean using your feet? Well, that doesn't seem like a big deal either...

So he handed the crossbow to Richard.

Richard examined it thoroughly from top to bottom as soon as he got his hands on it, and then...

Taking advantage of the fact that no one around was paying attention, he quietly cast a charm spell on her.

You have successfully charmed the Moonfire Repeating Crossbow.

[Moonfire Crossbow: The world gave birth to all things to nurture life, yet life rarely gives back to the world. Don't you think this is a mistake? There's only one way to correct this mistake... kill! kill! kill! kill! kill! kill! kill!]

Richard: ...

Yeah, I'm used to it.

Few of these objects that can be seduced are psychologically healthy.

He whispered a few more words to the crossbowman and finally confirmed that he needed to help the crossbowman get thirty kills in order to receive the latter's gift pack.

Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any monsters around here anymore.

After all, reality is not a game. The number of monsters that an area's ecosystem can support is limited, and they can't be quickly respawned after being killed.

Richard nodded and temporarily returned the crossbow to Levin.

The group then traveled smoothly to the old elm forest in the southeast—a place that truly lived up to its name, filled with ancient elm trees so thick that it took two people to hug them, their bark dark and rough.

Thanks to Levin and Mendel's familiarity with the forest and the church's markings on the map, they quickly found a dense patch of purple clover in a small clearing in the woods.

as well as……

More and more goblins.

Richard smiled and looked at Levin with enthusiastic eyes.

Levin: ?