Chapter 43: Reduced Prey, Worse Luck?

Words : 1130 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

The scorching sun began to gradually set in the west. The light inside the Draper Forest visibly dimmed with the naked eye. After escaping the pursuit of those few ogres, Tang Zheng immediately found a spot where the trees were sparse and the bushes low to rest and recover. This kind of environment was relatively better for observing the surroundings, at least with the ogres' large bodies, they would be easily noticed at the first moment. "Minor Healing!" Tang Zheng released a gentle white glow from his hands, which then merged into his body. In an instant, the small wounds on his cheeks and body quickly healed at a visibly rapid pace. The wounds on him did not look serious, but in the wild, if left untreated, they could easily become pus-filled or infected. According to the Draper Squad’s wilderness survival experience, this was the most dangerous. Fortunately, a single "Minor Healing" was enough to restore these wounds. Tang Zheng clearly felt a warm current flowing throughout his limbs, and the stuffiness in his chest was immediately relieved significantly. "What exactly is going on?" "How could the ogres unite together like this?" Tang Zheng’s face showed a few unpleasant expressions as he pondered in confusion. He was very clear that as the number of goblins slaughtered increased, it would inevitably attract the attention of the ogres in the forest, since goblins were their backup food source. But the current situation clearly wasn’t enough to catch the ogres’ attention. "Could there be special individuals among the goblins or the ogres?" This thought flashed through Tang Zheng’s mind. Unlike games where all individuals of a race are identical, in another world like this true world, it was normal for there to be variations within a species. Although this had not appeared in anime, it didn’t mean it was impossible. As the saying goes, two fists can’t fight four hands! One or two ogres didn’t need attention, but when their numbers increased, the situation just like earlier would occur. His physical attack was high, but his physical defense was too low; if hit several times more, he wouldn’t hold up. "The next moves have to be more cautious." Tang Zheng murmured softly. As the sun set, Tang Zheng climbed a large tree as usual, putting on a black robe, making it even harder to see his figure in the already dark environment. Late at night! Tang Zheng was in a light sleep state with his eyes closed when suddenly his ears twitched. Rustle rustle~ The faint sound of light footsteps stepping on grass and leaves, causing them to break, gradually approached the big tree where Tang Zheng was. Half-asleep, Tang Zheng immediately became alert but did not open his eyes, maintaining the appearance of sleeping with eyes closed. The night forest was very lively. It was quite normal for wild beasts or magical beasts to pass nearby; he had encountered many times before. Tang Zheng didn’t open his eyes to observe because in such pitch-black surroundings, unless the creature was very close, human eyesight simply couldn’t see creatures clearly at night. After a while, the light footsteps paused briefly. The place where the sound disappeared was right below Tang Zheng’s tree, but soon the footsteps resumed, gradually fading away. Tang Zheng’s breathing returned to normal, and he closed his eyes again. Although he was in a light sleep state all night, the Draper Forest had over twelve hours of darkness daily. Stretching sleep time like this actually prevented drowsiness and even mental exhaustion. The next day. Warm sunlight once again shone through the leaves onto the earth. Tang Zheng rolled over and jumped down from the tree, stretched out to put away the black robe into his inventory box, and began the day’s schedule. He munched on rye bread while searching for goblins and monsters! Time passed bit by bit. From the sun rising high to setting in the west. After marking a large tree with his iron sword, Tang Zheng showed a helpless expression on his face. "Really bad luck today, only ran into ten goblins." Tang Zheng complained with a headache. These few goblins were still the kind without a tribe. Of course, besides goblins, he also encountered a few monsters and many wild beasts. Giant snakes were quite common; several corpses of three to four-meter-long giant snakes were still stored in Tang Zheng’s inventory box. But ordinary beasts gave very little experience. As for monsters, he encountered a half-meter-long giant beetle but unfortunately it escaped. Although these monsters gave a fair amount of experience, it was about equal to the combined experience of three or four goblins, but killing them was much more troublesome. Tang Zheng recently preferred slaying goblins, since it was one sword per goblin, not troublesome. If he got lucky to find a group and followed them back, he could get a large amount of experience. In the following days. The number of goblins Tang Zheng encountered was still low. He also killed many ordinary wild beasts he had previously ignored. Before this, Tang Zheng could kill about thirty goblins daily, usually gaining around 500 to 600 experience points per day. Now the number of goblin encounters sometimes was even in the single digits. This not only irritated Tang Zheng. Although he killed quite a number of goblins during this time, compared to the goblins that caused massive trouble for the entire Li Yestige Kingdom border each year, it was really not many. After several consecutive days without encountering a decent number of goblins, Tang Zheng could only conclude that his luck was too bad. Late Wind Month. June 16th. Tang Zheng arrived in this world on May 16th, so exactly one month had passed. He entered the Draper Forest on June 2nd, so now he had been in the forest for half a month. Perhaps due to the one-month anniversary of his crossing. Tang Zheng’s luck suddenly improved a lot today. After several days of hardly encountering goblins, they started appearing again. His iron sword was naturally eager for action, killing 21 goblins in one day, with his experience points soaring. ‘Experience Points: 2620/5000’ Moreover. Tang Zheng found that the number of goblins in this area was clearly higher, likely indicating a large goblin tribe nearby. At night. Rustle rustle~ As a certain beast passed under the tree where Tang Zheng was, its body rubbed against bushes, making faint sounds. Tang Zheng half leaned against the tree trunk, his head resting on his arms, his left foot casually crossed over his right, not paying much attention to the movements under the lush branches. The "Scent Removal" spell was enough to completely erase all his scents; even the keenest beasts could not smell him.

Chapter 43: Reduced Prey, Worse Luck?

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