Starting with the goblin extermination

Chapter 103 Still Vigorous in Old Age

"Damn, I'm really getting old."

The old man muttered to himself, hacking the crocodile's long snout in two with an axe. His useless elbow throbbed with pain. Time to retire. He should have given up long ago. He really wanted to do some carpentry outside, then relax in a deckchair, basking in the sun and watching the sunset over the river.

However, he didn't have a yard, or even a house.

Thinking about this, he couldn't help but ask himself, "Where the hell did all the money go?" Then he subconsciously looked at his crotch and found the answer with a wry smile.

Fifty-six years old is an age when most humans should be enjoying their retirement, let alone a precocious half-orc. He had slept with many alluring women and showered countless gold coins on prostitutes, but none of them stayed with him until the end, let alone left him with a child.

"roar!"

He snapped back to his senses, swung his hand back, and swatted away another attacking mineral crocodile. Then, his large axe, glowing red, sank into the monster's head. The moment he pulled the axe out, Old Bones' heart pounded wildly.

Before this, he had gone to great lengths to maintain the composed demeanor of a senior in front of this little brat, Kadi.

But in reality, as he got older, his legs became increasingly weak, and he became increasingly timid.

Before he was called Old Bones, he dared to sneak alone into dark underground caves and slaughter those chattering, ferocious rats. But now, he felt a chill run down his spine with every swing of his axe.

The two mineral crocodiles were finally cleared away. He leaned on the axe handle and took the opportunity to catch his breath. But then Kadi's loud shouts came from not far away, so the old man had to force himself to shut up and straighten his back.

An energetic little beast.

Old Bones cursed under his breath as he dragged the two carcasses of mineral crocodiles over.

Not far from the shallows, three carcasses of mineral crocodiles lay side by side in an open area. Kadi was using a hammer he had prepared beforehand to strike the blood crystal ore on the crocodiles' backs. After Old Bones had demonstrated to Kadi how to find and even kill a mineral crocodile with a single blow, the black-haired boy had quickly learned it. So the two split up and began searching this relatively safe area.

The mineral crocodiles, whose backs bear accompanying minerals, are excellent auxiliary materials for blacksmiths to forge magical equipment. Therefore, the blacksmith shops in town often post related bounties in the guild, and this time was no exception.

"Damn it! This damn rock is like it's embedded in my bones, I'm about to break my hand!" Kadi complained angrily. He had been knocking for a long time but hadn't managed to knock off a single piece of ore.

"Go away, get out of here. You're as stupid as my grandma's pig."

Old Bones shoved Kadi aside. He drew a short knife from his waist and scraped hard at the seam where the mineral crocodile's back met the scales.

"You didn't even do your homework before coming to work! You can't just hammer this thing; you need to learn!"

The scales on the back of the mineral crocodile are hard and rough. In the middle of its spine, four fist-sized, dark red, hard mineral stones rise up. The edges of the mineral stones are tightly interlocked with the scales at their base, making them look like tumors growing from flesh.

The old man gripped his short knife, cutting along the edges and seams of the ore. Then he reversed the hammer, striking the surrounding area several times, causing the protruding scales to instantly deflate. After several more rounds of destruction, a piece of ore with blackish-red streaks fell off.

"See that? At the rate you keep tapping it, it won't fall off even next year!"

"I'll try again."

Following the old bones' example, Kadi excitedly tapped on the remaining three corpses.

The old man leaned against the tree, gazing into Kadi's green eyes, memories washing over him like a tide. As people age, they tend to reminisce, especially since he had witnessed this scene with another young man twenty years ago.

The little rascal's son has grown up so fast... It's unbelievable.

The ore on the crocodile's back was quickly stripped away. Old Bones counted the number of ore pieces: one, two, three... a total of twelve, enough to fulfill the commission.

Old Bones told Kadi to pack his things and prepare to leave; they had other tasks to complete that day. Just then, he heard a loud commotion coming from the southeast direction across the river.

This river in the Ash Forest has no name. Its murky waters carry withered branches and rotten leaves as they flow slowly. The banks are muddy shallows carved out by the water over the years, and the air is always filled with the stench of mud.

Although water is always precious in the forest, seasoned adventurers know that this is the habitat of mineral crocodiles.

Don't be fooled by how easily Old Bones and Cardi dealt with the five Mineral Crocodiles. That's because Old Bones, with decades of experience, deliberately chose the edge area where the Mineral Crocodiles were the least numerous.

Otherwise, when you cut off the long snout of a rock crocodile in the river and let the blood spread, there is a good chance that two or three other rock crocodiles attracted by the smell of blood will swim towards you not far away.

Its long snout is filled with sharp teeth, possessing an astonishing bite force, and the minerals and scales on its back are as hard as iron. The Mineral Crocodile is not an easy, social monster to deal with. For low-level adventurers, unless it's for a few gold coins, it's best not to linger too long in this river.

But the man in front of the old man was different.

He instinctively opened his mouth wide.

A blond man raced along the riverbank, mud and water exploding beneath his feet. He moved with incredible speed, and before the mineral crocodile could leap out of the water, the man had already twisted his body, his long sword leaving afterimages as he thrust it towards the crocodile's long snout. The mineral crocodile thrashed about in an attempt to dodge, but to no avail.

The man pierced the scales with a downward strike, sending fragments flying onto the water's surface. The tip of his longsword plunged straight into the brain, and blood mixed with brain matter drifted away on the rippling water.

He grabbed the corpse with one hand and threw it ashore. Then, he swung his longsword and thrust it in mid-air. The eyes of another mineral crocodile that pounced on him suddenly burst open, and it collapsed limply to the ground.

The man didn't care that the smell of blood and the loud noise would attract more crocodiles; in fact, that was the effect he wanted. His strength led him to choose the most efficient and dangerous method of slaughter.

Kadi came to Old Bones' side and stared blankly at the rocks floating on the river. They were mineral crocodiles driven mad by the smell of blood, swimming toward the murderer who had slaughtered their kind to seek revenge.

The old man asked himself honestly, if it were him, could he have survived even half a minute of the frenzied attack by so many long-beaked beasts?

Impossible.

But for the blond man, the world around him was filled with mud, blood, raptors, and a longsword gripped tightly in his hands. He danced on the riverbank with his fighting instincts, not confined to thrusts, but using a variety of moves: slashing, parrying, sweeping, and thrusting, while constantly tapping the mud with his feet to adjust his position.

In no time, he cleaved the two mineral crocodiles in two, their scattered scales embedding themselves in the mud like scattered nails from an overturned box. He dodged to the side, his long, fanged snout scraping against the black chainmail with a harsh metallic scraping sound, but before the monster could turn around, the man pierced its vulnerable vent with his sword, blood gushing out as it screamed and fled forward.

The blond man pierced its head with a single sword strike.

The shallows on the opposite bank were covered with countless mutilated corpses of all sizes. Blood flowed slowly into the river like a stream, forming a scarlet ribbon along the edge of the water.

"So strong... he's practically a monster."

Kadi stared in disbelief at the tall figure in the distance; the neat blond hair looked somewhat familiar.

Wait, it's that man named Logan.

Snapped!

The old man woke up with a start and slapped Kadi on the back of the head.

"#!"

"Still watching?! Are you out of your mind?!"

The old man growled in a low voice. Meeting a fellow traveler in the forest is never a good thing.

Old Bones considered himself an adventurer with principles. But he had to admit that in his many years as an adventurer, his axe had been stained with the blood of some foolish fellow adventurers, even though it was always others who started the trouble.

After all, the dead don't speak in the forest.

That guy named Logan is a professional. Although I didn't see his half-elf teammate, I have no doubt that he could crush me and this arrogant brat next to him as easily as crushing two ants.

"Hurry up! Be quiet, don't make a sound!"

Before they're discovered, they need to get out of there quickly. Old Bones can't risk his life on Logan's character.

Before he could fully turn around, a strong, fishy smell wafted through the forest, and alarm bells rang in the old man's heart. He turned around abruptly.

The bushes were silently parted.

A terrifying giant bear, its body the size of a mountain of flesh, with half-meter-long claws on its forelimbs, was drooling as it stared down at them.

Top predators on the outskirts of the forest.

Cracked Claw Bear.

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