Chapter 85: Chapter 81: The Ingenious Use of a Mermaid

Not long after, the crude wooden gate of the camp was carefully pushed open a crack.

CREAK~

The small team of adventurers snuck in, peering around cautiously.

The leader was a middle-aged, bearded man in partial leather armor, carrying a scimitar. He had the air of a brigand.

The moment they stepped into the camp, the heavy scent of blood assaulted their nostrils.

The bearded man’s expression changed instantly. "This is bad! Something’s happened! Retreat! Quick..."

Unfortunately, it was already too late to think of retreating.

In the time it took them to turn, an army of Skeletons had already surrounded them from all directions, trapping the small adventurer team and sealing off the entire camp.

Icy bone spears and rusted blades grated on their nerves, and the massive encirclement of over five hundred Skeletons brought with it an unparalleled psychological pressure.

"U-Undead!?"

"My goddess, why are there so many Undead Creatures?!"

"We surrender! We surrender! Don’t kill us."

The adventurers were scared out of their wits, their faces as pale as paper.

They were just low-level adventurers trying to make a living; when had they ever seen a sight like this?

With their strength, they could handle a few stray goblins, but facing a real, large-scale Undead Army, they couldn’t muster even a shred of courage to fight back.

CLANG! CLATTER!

With almost no hesitation, they immediately dropped their weapons, knelt on the ground in unison, and clasped their hands over their heads.

"My lord, spare us! Spare our lives! We were just passing by, we don’t know anything," the bearded man cried, leading the pleas for mercy.

CREAK~

The wooden gate of the shack was pushed open.

Lynch, surrounded by his Skeleton Guard, walked out slowly.

His figure was still shrouded in a large black robe, his indifferent gaze sweeping over the trembling adventurers.

"Noisy," Lynch said coolly.

The pleas for mercy stopped abruptly.

The adventurers fell deathly silent, not daring to even breathe too loudly.

"Question them."

Lynch gestured to the old militiaman.

He couldn’t be bothered to waste his breath on this bunch of hooligans.

"Yes, my lord." The old militiaman immediately stepped forward to interrogate them.

At first, the bearded man tried to argue and hide the truth, but after Bone Jade stepped forward and chopped off two heads, which a Bone Mage then revived on the spot as Skeleton Servants, the bearded man completely broke down.

Trembling and wailing, he spilled everything he knew.

It turned out that their small adventuring party had been hired by a middleman known as "Blood Eye."

The task Blood Eye had given them was to periodically receive kidnapped young women and transfer them to another secret location.

They were only responsible for transportation and handover, asking no questions about the origin or purpose of their cargo.

Each time they successfully handed over a batch of "goods," they would receive a handsome sum of Gold Coins from Blood Eye.

And Blood Eye, their employer, was said to have close ties with a rather large Goblin Tribe in this region, the Bloodfang Tribe.

This recent kidnapping of young women was the work of the goblins from the Blood Fang Tribe.

Their goal was, astonishingly, to gather a total of one hundred young women under the age of twenty.

According to the scar-faced man’s confession, more than twenty previously abducted young women were still being held in the Bloodfang Tribe’s lair.

They had come this time to take this batch of young women from the temporary camp, along with the twenty-plus from the Bloodfang Tribe’s lair, and transport them to the designated location.

As for what Blood Eye wanted with these one hundred young women or where they would ultimately be sent, the scar-faced man claimed that a small fry like him could never know, and Blood Eye would never reveal such things to him.

After getting a general understanding of the situation, Lynch’s brows furrowed tightly.

’One hundred young women!’

’An operation of this scale is definitely not simple human trafficking.’

’A typical slave trade wouldn’t have such precise requirements, nor would it demand such a large number to be gathered all at once.’

’And while goblins are greedy, whatever power could make a sizable Goblin Tribe so obediently carry out such a specific task must have a significant scheme in the works.’

His original objective of rescuing Little Lisa had been achieved, but now, it seemed he had been drawn into a much more troublesome vortex.

Lynch now had two choices.

’Should I just take my people and leave, playing it safe to protect myself?’

’Or...’

Soon, Lynch had made his decision.

’Playing it safe and returning directly to the Fishing Port with his people was, of course, the safest option.’

’But there were still more than twenty innocent young women in the Bloodfang Tribe’s lair, and the mysterious "Blood Eye" was still plotting to gather a full hundred.’

’If he ignored it, others would soon suffer the same fate.’

’Besides, he had long since taken a liking to the "Bloodfang" of the Bloodfang Tribe. How could he bear to let the matter drop?’

’Of course, the prerequisite for all of this was to be sufficiently cautious and to act only after careful planning.’

"It’s still early." Lynch looked up at the sun and decided to make camp, rest, eat something, and then move after nightfall.

Soon, he found a clean area and began to set up camp.

His Space Ring had limited capacity and couldn’t hold too many miscellaneous items, but he had plenty of "laborers" among the Skeletons under his command. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

A few of the relatively strong Bear Goblin Skeletons and Fish Giant Skeletons were always carrying luggage, which included tents, an iron pot, water skins, spare blankets, and other daily necessities—they had everything they needed.

Soon, a warm bonfire was lit in the center of the camp.

Inside the iron pot, bled-out venison and several types of edible wild mushrooms were stewing, bubbling away.

The rich aroma of meat mixed with the fresh scent of mushrooms wafted through the camp.