Chương 16: Deciding to Take a Detour
The group of goblins above the waterfall waited for a minute... five minutes... ten minutes, but in the end, nothing happened.
They neither received a response nor saw any trace of the young goblin.
This caused their spirits to drop significantly. The more mysterious something is, the more people fear it.
They were afraid that there might be something dangerous beneath the waterfall. They feared the hidden dangers of this new world.
Different fears arose in their hearts, making those who had dared to jump earlier now feel hesitant.
"Is there... really no danger down there?"
"Why... why are you asking me? How would I know?"
"How about we wait a bit longer?"
"Wait for what? It's been so long, and we still haven't seen a trace of him. He's probably dead by now."
"So, what should we do now?"
"How about we take a detour? We'll go down that way."
"But just how far is this detour? I think we should still jump down, just with more of us at once so we have the strength to resist whatever's down there."
.....
After some discussion, they came up with a plan: send three goblins to jump down at once to scout the situation.
"Please, you three are the most capable among us and can shoulder this responsibility."
The three goblins nodded. Goblins, after all, weren't truly as cowardly as their kind was often perceived to be.
Although the fear was real, they still wanted to risk it to see the truth of the situation. Heroic goblins have existed in every era, but it was time that had tarnished the qualities of these heroes.
The same could be said for humanity. The direction of human education has gradually eroded the environment where heroes could emerge.
As time goes on, more and more heroes will disappear from human society.
If society no longer needs heroes, why should heroes be born?
If this continues, there will come a day when, even if society desperately needs heroes, there won't be any left.
But solving this issue isn't necessarily difficult. In fact, a small change could make all the difference.
Returning to the goblins, the three of them decisively jumped down one after another.
As they jumped, the three goblins were just as tense as the young goblin had been earlier, but luckily, they weren't overly panicked.
"Phew, we're alive!"
"Yeah, and I don't see anything dangerous, do you?"
"Look around and see if you can spot any trace of him."
They scanned the area and soon saw a faint green figure behind the waterfall.
Though the silhouette was hazy, they could guess that it was the goblin from earlier.
The three exchanged glances, nodded, and swam together toward the body of their fallen comrade.
Naturally, their movement didn't go unnoticed. Inside the cave, four spears were already prepared to launch in their direction.
As the goblins approached, they saw their comrade lying on the edge of the cave, the ground around him stained with blood.
They inhaled sharply, but before they could fully take in their surroundings…
Thud!
A spear shot straight into the head of the goblin at the back, leaving the two in front in shock.
Before they could recover their wits, two figures appeared—Lei Feng and Azeroth.
Without any hesitation, both of them struck decisively, ending the lives of the remaining two goblins within a second.
The spoils came easily to them after that. After counting the loot, Lei Feng spoke:
"We now have seven starstones. Let's give them all to Xue Lian to absorb. From what I see, the others won't have the courage to jump anymore. They'll probably choose to take the detour to get down here. And as far as I can tell, the detour is incredibly long. There's no path down anywhere nearby. Plus, this isn't their planet - they might get lost in the forest."
The others nodded in agreement, acknowledging the accuracy of his analysis. Navigating by the stars to determine direction was completely useless here.
None of them had any idea where exactly this planet was in the universe. In fact, it might not even be part of the universe at all, but rather an independent space.
"Good, then let's not waste any more time. Hey, Azeroth, there's no problem if I eat them all at once, right?" Xue Lian asked.
She was about to consume the starstones but paused, thinking about the potential danger. If there was any risk, it might not be wise to eat too many at once in the future.
"There's no harm in it, but there's no real benefit either. One star takes thirty minutes, so seven stars will take three and a half hours."
"Good, that's fine. But I can't consume them all at once. After all, being out of it for three and a half hours would be too dangerous."
With that, she began to absorb one star, while the others stood guard to ensure the process wasn't interrupted.
Suddenly, Lei Feng thought of something and asked:
"Can the absorption process be disrupted?"
"Yes, if you suffer significant injury, the absorption will be forcibly terminated, and you won't gain anything. It's basically like wasting a star."
"I see. So this world has been designed to support team play, huh? If you're alone, absorbing a star is really risky."
Long Wei nodded in agreement and said:
"This is a racial war, not something an individual can handle alone. It's obvious that teamwork is encouraged."
"You two are right. If you're by yourself, the chances of dying are high. Not to mention that during absorption, you can't move at all, and if you run into another group hunting you down, it'll be tough to survive." Azeroth added.
"But that's not too important right now. We just need to be cautious. I'm not sure if they'll risk jumping down again." Lei Feng said.
"Understood." the other two nodded in response.
Above them, the atmosphere had grown eerily quiet. No one spoke, and no one asked questions.
Once again, the brave goblins had gone down and hadn't returned. The others had only seen the goblins at the start, but after that, they disappeared.
After a long silence, someone finally spoke up,
"They... they're not coming back again."
"What should we do?"
"We have to do something. We can't let their sacrifice be in vain."
"But at the same time, we can't just rush into death."
"Then let's take the detour. It might take longer, but it's much safer."
"Alright, it seems that's our only option now."
.....
In the end, they decided to take the detour. They couldn't just ignore the situation, but the danger below was too great to jump recklessly.
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