Chapter 35

"Master!" 

Concerned, XB11 quickly approached Zuyuan while readying for any ambush, "Are you hurt, master?" 

"I'm alright…" shaking his head to say it was all good, Zuyuan took out his waterskin and downed it to the last drop. 

"Haaa..." He breathed out loudly, almost like a sigh. Then, he saw that his shout alarmed the two goblins from their deep slumber. 

"W-What's going on?! Enemy attack?! Where ar dem pricks at?!" Lyk jumped up, shouting while running around and spinning all over the place in a panic. 

"Calm down, you buffoon." said Huhe impatiently, while rolling his eyes from Lyk antics.

"Eh? Wait, what happened? Ya pricks?" Lyk asked, calming down while staring at Huhe with a surprised and dumb face.

"Someone was just having a bad dream." assessed Huhe as he moved his gaze towards Zuyuan, "Are you alright?" 

"Yeah, I'm fine." replied Zuyuan, a little bothered from the dream. Sometimes, he would dream of his past which at times brought back some terrible memories. This wasn't the first time it happened, and most probably won't be the last for a while. 

"Let's go back to sleep, we take as much rest as possible for tomorrow's journey." states Huhe as he crawls back to his sleeping bag. 

"Why? Is there something that needs us to be in our peak condition?" asked Zuyuan, noticing the particular notion of Huhe's words. 

Without wanting to continue the conversation, Huhe laid back again on the ground and turned his body in the opposite direction, muttering, "You will find out soon enough." 

Furrowing his eyebrows, Zuyuan glanced at Lyk. But after he saw Lyk sleeping form in all four while dripping some drools from his mouth, the words ended up stuck in his throat as Zuyuan was sure that the airheaded hobgoblin won't tell anything in the middle of the night. 

Sighing again, Zuyuan decided to meditate and focus on cultivating. XB11 went back to its position again to guarding their small camp.  

Feeling like just an hour passed, light shone on Zuyuan's closed eyelids and made them twitch for a second. Opening his eyes slowly, he saw the sunlight infiltrated between the forest canopy and lighting the whole forest. Around some time later, Huhe was stirred awake and tried to wake up Lyk as well. 

Taking out a map made from an animal hide, Huhe pointed to a location in the rough map and showed it to the group, while saying, "Across this river, there would be a forest which was surrounded by some kind of mutated plants, called Thakhuur. They were able to extend their vine to capture any unsuspecting passersby and use the produced black crystal in their body to call upon acid elements to attack." 

Different from his usual expression, Lyk's face became grim as he chimed in, "I could hold back two thakhuur at the same time. But dealing with three would be impossible with my two hands." 

"Thakhuur?" asked Zuyuan in curiosity. 

Glancing at Zuyuan, Huhe answered, "It was a plant that was taller than ordinary orcs, with their vines as thick as the orcs arm muscles. A mutation from black crystal radiation. Meant there must be black crystal vein below their area. But they would be hard to get as there's a lot of Thakhuur in there." 

"And what's black crystal?" asked Zuyuan with raised eyebrows. 

"In short, it is a crystal with a dark cold which is capable of replenishing our energies, storing energy, and making some of our shamanic magics stronger, Missionary. " answered Huhe, while staring at Zuyuan intently. As if trying to observe what Zuyuan had in his mind by seeing his body language. 

"By 'us', did you mean the native of this world or just the goblin race itself?" probed Zuyuan. Unbothered with the stare that was given by Huhe. He could guess where the suspicions came from when he listened to the explanation. 

'It sounds like mana crystals in games. At least, their description had similarities in it.' mused Zuyuan as his thought arrived at one conclusion. 

'Huhe was wary that as the foreigner from this world, the missionaries would be eyeing the black crystal? Depriving them from their own planet's resource?' furrowed Zuyuan as he too, observed Huhe reaction from his question. 

"The native of this world." answered Huhe curtly. After a few seconds, Huhe seemed to be hesitant about something but then in the end, opened his lips and said, "I know you may have realized this already from our conversation. But on our journey later, we would have to fight and watch each other's backs against the thakhuur. I had the choice of not telling you that the thakhuur had the black crystal in their body so that you wouldn't be aware of black crystal's existence. But my duty is to be your guide and companion in this journey. So if that means letting you know of the existence of black crystals in order to have you watch my back during our time together, then so be it." 

Smiling at Huhe's statement, Zuyuan replied, "I appreciate your honesty, Huhe." 

Avoiding eye contact with Zuyuan, Huhe nodded slightly to acknowledge Zuyuan's words as his head facing the opposite direction. 

"Lez go! Ya pricks! This Lyk needs to cut through some sticks!" shouted Lyk as he rolled his eyes when watching this scenario. This felt like nonsense to Lyk! 

After discussing any possible dangers on their way, they packed their stuff up and went back to the wolves. Riding to a specific direction in the forest. After one hour, they found the river that Huhe had mentioned in his map.

The river stream was running fast, with some fishes jumping from time to time. The fish had some canine teeth protruding from their lips and their eyes were red. Looking to Huhe, Zuyuan asked, "Now what should we do?" 

"We should--" as Huhe was about to answer, something flew across the air and aimed at his head. Quickly docked his head, he saw an arrow whizzed past his head and he shouted immediately, "Ambush! Get down!" 

Following the first arrow, a dozen more arrows flew to the group with ten orcs with longbows in their hands, coming out from behind a faraway boulder in the riverside. 

Watching the orcs, Lyk furrowed his eyebrows and shouted. 

"IT'S THE PRICKS!"