A Comprehensive Network: An Endless Adventure Begins as a Wanderer

The twelve goblin corpses lay quietly in their respective tents, covered with animal hides and hay, as if they had never been disturbed.

Cheng Yi stood in the center of the hall, listening intently.

The snoring stopped.

Instead, there was a deeper silence, as if the cave itself was holding its breath.

Cheng Yi's gaze fell on a side road on the right side of the hall.

The path led deeper into the cave, where an odor even stronger than the stench of goblins wafted through the air—animal fur, raw meat, and excrement mixed together, creating a pungent, instinctively unpleasant smell.

Kennel.

Cheng Yi frowned.

The wolves that Klamm kept were in that direction.

He didn't approach rashly, but instead closed his eyes and narrowed the range of his Observation Haki to the area around the kennel.

Three faint but active life forms appeared in my senses—they were a size larger than the goblins, their auras sharper, carrying the alertness and aggression characteristic of wild beasts.

Three wolves.

And they didn't fall asleep.

Cheng Yi could sense them pacing back and forth in the kennel, occasionally stopping as if sniffing something. One of the wolves, the largest, had a more composed aura than the other two, and was probably the alpha wolf of the pack.

"This is troublesome."

If it were just three wolves, he would be perfectly capable of taking them down in a short time. But the problem is that wolves are far more alert than goblins, and once he gets close to the kennel, the pack will most likely howl as a warning.

Krum's tent was located less than 20 meters behind the kennel.

Cheng Yi leaned against the cave wall, his index finger unconsciously tapping the hilt of his sword, making a very faint "tap-tap" sound.

He was thinking.

Charging in head-on is the stupidest option. With three wolves and Krum, the odds of winning in a direct confrontation are uncertain.

But there was no way around it—the kennels and Krum's tent occupied the only passage deep inside the cave, with hard stone walls on both sides, and there was no other way to go.

The wolf pack and Kram must be dealt with simultaneously, and the wolf pack must not raise an alarm before Kram is dealt with.

Cheng Yi closed his eyes, and the layout of the cave's depths appeared in his mind.

The kennel was an area enclosed by a wooden fence, about a meter high, made of rough tree trunks and vines, with large gaps that allowed him to see clearly inside. The kennel door faced south, directly towards the hall, while Krum's tent was on the north side of the kennel, about fifteen meters away.

The tent entrance faces east, meaning that if he comes from the direction of the hall, Kram cannot see him, but if the wolves howl, Kram can rush out of the tent in just a few seconds.

Cheng Yi opened his eyes, took out the Black Widow Salad with Phase Spider Venom variant from his backpack, and finished it in a few bites.

[You have consumed Black Widow Salad (Phase Spider Venom Variant). Health will slowly regenerate over 1 hour. You have gained poison resistance. Your next attack will inflict a minor Field Tear.]

The cool food slid down his throat, carrying a refreshing herbal scent. He could feel a faint energy flowing through his body, gathering in his right palm like a compressed mass of air, ready to be released at any moment.

Everything is ready.

Cheng Yi took a deep breath, crouched down, and crept along the cave wall toward the kennel.

His steps were extremely light, each step landing precisely on the hardest part of the soil to avoid stepping on gravel or puddles. His level 2 shadow affinity made his figure almost blend into the shadows of the cave wall, his breathing was kept to a minimum, and even his heartbeat was deliberately slowed down.

The kennel is getting closer.

The fishy, ​​pungent smell grew stronger and stronger, almost filling one's nostrils and making one want to gag.

Cheng Yi forced himself to hold back and peeked half his head out from the shadows of the cave wall to look inside the kennel.

Three wolves.

The largest kennel was grayish-black, almost reaching Cheng Yi's thigh at the shoulder, with thick limbs and claws that had dug deep furrows in the mud. It stood in the center of the kennel, its ears perked up and its nose twitching slightly, as if sniffing out something unusual in the air.

The other two, slightly smaller, one grayish-brown and the other tan, were huddled in the corner of the kennel, but neither of them were asleep—their eyes were open, and they would occasionally turn their heads to look towards the door.

Cheng Yi did not rush to make a move.

He took out three willow-leaf throwing knives from his scabbard, holding one in his right palm and the other two between his fingers. The power of the Moon Goddess Throwing Knife flowed naturally along his arm, its silvery gleam appearing and disappearing between his fingers, only to be swallowed by the shadows.

Cheng Yi adjusted his breathing and quickly scanned the kennel with his eyes.

The alpha wolf was positioned at the very back, deep inside the kennel, almost touching the north fence. The gray-brown one paced back and forth in the center of the kennel, while the tan-colored one huddled in a corner, its eyes half-closed.

He needs to kill the alpha wolf first.

It's not because the alpha wolf is the strongest, but because it's positioned furthest away. If the two closest wolves are killed first, the alpha wolf has enough time to react—howl or pounce on the fence to make a bigger noise.

If the alpha wolf is killed first, the two nearby wolves will be stunned in a brief moment of panic, and that less than a second of hesitation will be their death.

Cheng Yi closed his eyes, then opened them again.

A slight flick of the wrist.

The moonlight flashed in the darkness.

A very faint "hiss" sound, like a fingernail slicing through silk.

The alpha wolf's throat was pierced.

It opened its mouth, but no sound came out. The throwing knife precisely severed its trachea, tearing it apart along with its vocal cords. The alpha wolf's body stiffened abruptly, its limbs straightening, and blood gushed from the wound in its throat, almost black in the darkness.

It staggered forward a step, its front legs buckled, and it knelt on the ground. Then its whole body rolled to its side, fell onto the muddy ground, twitched twice, and remained still.

The gray-brown wolf heard the noise and turned its head to look.

The second ray of moonlight.

The throwing knife pierced its right eye and went through its skull. The gray-brown wolf didn't even twitch; its body went limp.

The tan wolf finally realized what was happening.

It suddenly stood up and opened its mouth—

The third ray of moonlight.

The throwing knife pierced its mouth, penetrating from the lower jaw, through the upper jaw, and into the base of its skull. The howl was blocked in its throat, turning into a muffled "gurgle," like someone blowing a bubble underwater.

The tan wolf's body tilted back, its four legs in the air, and it crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Three knives.

Three wolves.

You have killed 3 dire wolves and gained 30 general experience points.

The kennel was so quiet it was as if nothing had happened, except for the sizzling sound of blood seeping into the soil, which was particularly clear in the silence.

Cheng Yi breathed a sigh of relief, stood up from the shadows, climbed over the fence, and entered the kennel.

He crouched down and pulled the throwing knife back from the three wolf corpses.

All three throwing knives are still usable.

Cheng Yi dragged the three wolf carcasses to a corner of the kennel and covered them with dry grass. The alpha wolf was indeed large and heavy to drag, and it took Cheng Yi some effort to stuff it into the pile of dry grass.

After doing all this, he climbed over the fence and headed toward Kram's tent.

------

The tent was much bigger than those goblin junks.

The animal hides were whole, not pieced together from scraps, and the stitching was neat, showing that they were carefully made. The tent's frame was made of thick tree trunks, deeply embedded in the soil, as stable as if they had grown into the ground.

The tent flap was hanging down, obscuring the view inside.

But Cheng Yi was told by his Observation Haki that Kram was inside.

And it was awake.

Cheng Yi could sense that strong aura moving back and forth inside the tent. It wasn't the unconscious movement of turning over in sleep, but a purposeful and conscious movement.

Kram is waiting.

Or rather, it is listening.

Warning bells rang in Cheng Yi's mind.

He suddenly realized something—Kram might have already heard the wolves' movements.

It wasn't a howl, nor an alarm, but the muffled thud of a knife piercing flesh, the sound of a wolf falling to the ground. Though the sounds weren't loud, in the silent cave, they were enough to alert a wise and experienced goblin chieftain.

But Cheng Yi had no way out.

He slowly retreated into the shadows of the kennel, squatted down, took out the Krafton Elixir from his backpack, unscrewed the cap, and took a mouthful without swallowing.

Then he took out two willow-leaf throwing knives, one held in his left palm and the other in his mouth.

He gripped the Hundred-Forged Sword tightly in his right hand, the tip pointing downwards, hidden behind his back.

The poison sac ring gleamed with a cold, eerie light in the darkness, its dark green band resembling the eye of some kind of reptile.

Everything is ready.

Cheng Yi closed his eyes and activated his Observation Haki to its fullest extent.

Kram was positioned slightly to the left of the center of the tent, standing steadily with its center of gravity slightly forward—a posture ready to pounce at any moment. Its breathing was even, and its heartbeat was strong, like an engine poised to unleash its power.

Cheng Yi opened his eyes.

A flick of the wrist.

Moonlight pierced the darkness, tore through the animal hide curtains, and entered the tent with a sharp whooshing sound.

"laugh--"

There was no sound of the throwing knife hitting flesh.

Cheng Yi heard a dull "clang," like metal striking wood.

Then, there was a moment of silence in the tent.

That moment was so quiet it was as if time had been frozen.

Immediately afterwards, the tent flap was ripped open from the inside.

A huge figure rushed out of the tent.

Bugbear.

Klam.