Goblin Heavy Dependence

Chapter 86 Struggle
Midsummer is a time of national carnival for the people on the continent of Ephra.

As an adventurer who walks on a tightrope all year round, he earns a lot of money but his future is uncertain.

Such an important annual festival is naturally impossible to miss.

White Tit Tavern.

Unlike the solemnity of the central square, this entertainment place, which is already filled with alcohol and musical notes, is particularly noisy today.

The originally spacious hall was almost filled with adventurers. Waiters carrying plates and drinks were busy shuttling between the tables, their aprons and uniforms almost soaked with sweat.

The pub owner has a good sense for marketing.

Occupying a prime location near the Adventurer's Guild, the business was booming and a special celebration was held on Midsummer Day.

"White Tit Drinking Contest"

A large glass of wine mixed with special spices. If the challenger can finish it in one breath, he will be rewarded with a free meal for the whole night.
If you fail, you will need to pay a bill of up to "1 silver coin" for the special drink.

To be honest, one silver coin is not a very expensive expense for most adventurers.

After all, it's just the price of one night in a hotel.

In comparison, the free-of-charge reward is more tempting.

As soon as the news came out, almost half of the adventurers in the town heard the news and rushed into the tavern, but were defeated one after another.

The special spices mixed in the wine seem to have some kind of strong stimulating effect.

After a few sips, the smell is even more pungent than the Sichuan peppercorns, a specialty of the Grimm region, and will make you spit out the wine in your mouth and start coughing violently.

Of course, as a serious businessman after all, I have to keep the shop open in the future.

The tavern owner had a good sense of proportion.

Not everyone cannot succeed. Occasionally, a few adventurers with strong physique or who are not so sensitive to smells can still win rewards.

There may be one or two like that among ten challengers.

And every time someone got a free meal, the pub owner would take the opportunity to spread the news loudly, which attracted a large number of onlookers to come forward and join in.

Now, it seems that another challenger is about to succeed.

He was a tall, thin man wearing a loose burqa.

He tilted his head back, his eyes tightly closed, his Adam's apple rolling, his skinny hands holding the wine glass trembling violently, and crystal clear wine dripping from the corners of his mouth; his rough face flushed red under years of wind and sand, and his nostrils twitched due to the strong stimulation of the wine.

It seemed as if he would choke and cough in the next second, but he persisted with his tenacious will.

“A Calimshan?”

Xia Nan's eyes swept over the man's hair and skin, and he guessed in his heart.

The knowledge he gained from the emergency remedial classes these days has given him a better understanding of the geography and humanities of this world.

Calimshan is an area located in the southern part of the continent, with the main landforms being desert and wasteland.

Slave trade, date palms, spices and mercenaries...

The scorching sun and raging sandstorms all year round make the people living there generally have yellow-brown skin and curly and dry black hair.

Coupled with the jewel rings on the men's fingers and the metal hairbands on the ends of their hair, which are highly indicative cultural symbols, it is not difficult to discern their identity as "desert people."

Nothing surprising.

As an important adventure town in Panyun Province, River Valley Town is home to adventurers from all over the continent who come here to seek their fortune in the pan for gold.

Although Calimshans are rare, they are not completely absent.

"Xianan, what do you mean, do you want to come and play?"

Seeing Xia Nan walk into the pub, the owner "Chapton" invited him with a smile.

After staying in the tavern for so many days, the two of them already knew each other's names. Their relationship was not very close, but they could barely be considered ordinary friends.

In response, Xia Nan just smiled and waved his hand to refuse.

"Don't try to earn this little money from me. Give me set meal number three."

"Haha, okay!"

The memories from his past life made him very familiar with this kind of business routine, and the painful experience of being ripped off by major businesses over and over again made it impossible for him to be fooled again after traveling through time.

I found a corner where there were relatively few customers and sat down.

The tall and thin man at the bar who was challenging the special drinks seemed to be about to succeed.

His head, which was already held high, suddenly tilted back and poured the last bit of wine in the glass into his mouth.

"Bang!" The empty wine glass was slammed on the table. The man's chest heaved violently, and the pungent smell of alcohol made him almost unable to breathe.

"Congratulations! Another guest has succeeded in the challenge, and the meal is free tonight!"

The tavern owner Chapton applauded and congratulated loudly.

The drinkers watching on the side also cheered, and it was obvious that several of them were eager to try.

The man wiped the wine from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, and in the face of everyone's congratulations, a hint of pride appeared on his rough and thin face.

Suddenly, a questioning voice came from the crowd.

"Boss, can you drink hangover medicine before this event?"

He saw a sturdy red-bearded dwarf wearing a light leather armor, staring at him with his copper-bell-like eyes and questioning him dissatisfiedly.

Paying attention to the situation on the field, Xia Nan reacted belatedly after the other party said this.

"No wonder I smelled a strange smell when I passed by before, it turned out to be this."

He understood clearly in his heart.

The main ingredient of the hangover remedy is a small plant called "wormshell flower".

It's okay at normal times, at most it looks a little weird.

But after being cooked, the wormwood flower will emit a sour smell similar to fermented sweat.

When he went to the "Green Herb Crucible" to purchase a few days ago, Ms. Edwina was just making a new batch of hangover potion.

That smell...it almost drove him away.

"What, what hangover remedy?" Before the tavern owner Chapton could say anything, the tall and thin man who had just succeeded in the challenge jumped up and became emotional when facing the dwarf's questioning. "I don't know what you mean!"

"Hey, you want to play dumb with your buddies, huh?"

He just wanted to seize the opportunity and ask Chapton to give him a few more glasses of ale.

The other party's retort only aroused the dwarf's temper.

"I can smell the stink of your insect shells from two streets away!"

"I like the taste of this. I was craving for it today, so I took a couple of sips before coming here. How is it?"

The tall and thin man grinned and argued cunningly.

Seeing that the quarrel between the two sides seemed to be getting more and more intense, Chapton, the tavern owner who rarely intervened, couldn't help but reach out and pull the dwarf who looked indignant:

"Forget it, just consider it as a favor to me. Today is Midsummer Day, so calm down."

"Jem, serve three glasses of ale to the table!"

He must be an old customer of the tavern. After being persuaded by Chapton, the straightforward and honest red-bearded dwarf shut up, glared at the other party and stopped pestering him.

The tall, thin, tan-skinned Calimshan knew he was in the wrong and was just trying to be clever and get a free dinner.

Being pointed out by the dwarf in public, he felt embarrassed to stay in the tavern any longer and turned around to leave.

Or maybe he felt embarrassed in front of so many people, so he frowned and muttered gloomily:
"Slag, what are you pretending to be..." His voice was not loud, but perhaps the dispute between the two attracted the attention of other people in the tavern, causing the originally bustling environment to calm down for a few seconds.

Even though Xia Nan was sitting in the corner of the hall, he was paying attention to the two of them and could faintly hear each other's mumbling and judge the content based on their lip shapes.

"Wow, boy, this is really not the end."

"Slag" is an extremely discriminatory and vicious derogatory term for the dwarves on the continent of Ephra.

——It implies that the dwarven race was forged from a volcanic furnace by their father god [Soul Forger] Mora.

To a certain extent, he even made a very faint and subtle reference to the other party's main god.

This is almost an unacceptable name for the dwarves who have always been proud of their bloodline and racial mythology.

Xia Nan once saw with his own eyes a drunkard who accidentally said those three words while bragging, and he didn't even target anyone, but he was knocked out of the tavern by several dwarves drinking at the next table, and his legs were broken.

Sure enough, the moment the words "slag" came out of his mouth.

The red-bearded dwarf, who had been persuaded by Chapton to return to his position, suddenly changed his expression!

He picked up the wine glass on the table and threw it hard at the tall and thin man who spoke without restraint.

"Damn sand rat, how dare you!?"

His bearded and hairy rough face turned red, and he cursed loudly, and his short and strong body rushed forward like a stone pillar.

"Wind Servant! Karin Maggot!"

There were sounds of tables and chairs colliding and being overturned, cries of pain, curses...there was a sudden chaos in front of the bar.

Xia Nan sat a little further away, took a sip of the cream of mushroom soup that had just been brought to the table by the waiter, looking quite comfortable.

In a pub, this kind of thing happens several times every night, and I'm used to it.

He just watched the two men wrestling, while analyzing and recalling the dwarves' name for the tall and thin man.

Many people often say that when learning a language, the first thing to learn, besides simple greetings, is swear words.

Shanan rested in River Valley Town for so many days, sitting in the tavern every night listening to the adventurers bragging.

If you say that I know any secrets, that’s definitely not the case.

Instead, I learned a lot about all kinds of scandals, gossip, and obscene words that are hard to hear.

"Sand rats" probably refers to the fact that the Calimshans have lived in the desert for a long time and are as cunning as rats when doing business;
"Wind Servant" is because the Calimshan region was once ruled by wind giants, mocking their ancestors for being slaves of elemental creatures.

He didn't know much about "Kalin Maggot". He didn't know if there was any allusion in it, or if it was just a simple combination of insulting words.

The two men who were wrestling with each other were one tall and thin, and the other short and strong.

The former relied on his height and long arms, and the red-bearded dwarf kicked and slapped him before he even touched him;

The latter was of solid build, with dense muscles and a very stable lower body. The insulting title made his blood boil, and he withstood the punches and kicks of the Calimshan man, hugged the man and threw him to the ground.

No one tried to stop the fight.

The drinkers on both sides who came to join in the fun formed a circle with the two men's battlefield as the center and started to make a lot of noise.

"Yes, hit him in the face, fuck this date mouth!"

"You said it's a stone belly, why are you still hitting it, do you know how to do it?"

“Hahaha, it’s biting, it’s biting.”

Those who were more active were shouting in the crowd to open the market and place bets.

Even Chapton, the tavern owner who had looked so friendly just now, did not dissuade him.

He just stood there helplessly with his hands on his hips, looking at the fallen tables and chairs on the ground.

At the same time, I was wondering whether I would get double or triple the compensation.

Xia Nan was so engrossed in watching the show that he even ate a few more bites of his dinner unconsciously.

The temperature gradually rises.

In fact, the two were originally quite restrained. Although they cursed each other and fought physically, they were just fighting with bare hands and did not use any combat skills.

But with the others cheering and the dwarf saying a series of extremely insulting words.

The tall and thin Calimshan man finally got completely carried away after being hit hard in the face by the opponent's powerful punch.

Suddenly stood up.

Swah——

He suddenly pulled out a scimitar that was flashing with cold light from his waist, and his face, which was covered with bruises, looked gloomy and uncertain.

The dwarf has an explosive temper and is always angry. Now that things have developed to this point, there is no way he will back down.

"Pooh!"

He spat a mouthful of blood on the ground beside him and held his heavy forging hammer in his right hand.

Take a deep breath.

The body suddenly expanded by two sizes, and the surface of the skin took on a metallic luster.

And just when the two of them were in a tense confrontation, at the critical moment.

"Crench."

The tightly closed door was suddenly pushed open.

hula-

Although it was a hot summer day, everyone in the tavern felt a chilling cold wind whistling in from the door.

A burly and strong silent figure, almost blocking the entire door, walked in slowly.

Close to the scalp, strands of bluish-green hair stood up like steel needles; his three-dimensional and deep facial features were like ice sculptures carved by the north wind, and in the shadows cast by his deep brows were his pair of dark blue pupils that seemed to have been tempered by the cold.

As if under some invisible pressure, the originally bustling bar suddenly became quiet.

The only sound in the air was the soft sound of the bone and tooth necklace colliding around the man's neck.

Xia Nan lowered his head instantly, scooped two mouthfuls of mushroom soup, and concentrated on eating.

On the field, the two people who were originally confronting each other put down their weapons at the same time.

It was as if all the courage and anger that had been there before were swallowed up by the biting cold wind that scraped through the bones.

Without saying a word, they each picked up the fallen tables, chairs and benches and sat back in their original seats.

It seemed as if everything that just happened was just an illusion.

Chapton stood behind the bar, forcing a stiff smile for business purposes, and greeted carefully:

"Welcome to the White Tit Tavern, sir. What would you like to eat?"

The barbarian was silent and did not reply.

His icy blue eyes turned slightly, and his gaze swept across the tavern hall.

Frozen in a corner.

As his sturdy thighs moved, the frosty white fur on his wolfskin cloak swayed gently.

The shadow cast by the burly figure in the light covered the black-haired young man who was eating with his head down.

"You are Xia Nan?"

(End of this chapter)