Although eager to find more goblins, the scene I saw before my eyes was far beyond what I expected.
The absurd amount of goblins in front of me was far more than I could have imagined.
There was a crowd of them scattered around the place.
I'm not sure, but counting the ones I can see, there must be at least seventy to eighty of them. If I consider that some of them are wandering around the outskirts and some of them are inside what looks like a den of vines over some low trees, there must be more of them. If I had to guess, I'd say this place must be home to at least a hundred and fifty goblins.
On a second thought, I can't say it's really a huge number. If it were people wandering around a street fair, then it wouldn't seem like much. But when it comes to creatures that can devour you, it's a different matter.
Watching them come and go from their lair of vines reminds me of an ant colony.
"And here I was thinking it was going to be just another easy XP..."
I mumbled as I thought about what to do next.
Snapping out of my perplexed state, I noticed Rin tugging at my shirt. Apparently she wants a reward for bringing me here.
"All right, girl," I stroked her head, "Don't rush, when we get back I'll feed you plenty of food."
At my answer, she seemed dissatisfied. But there's nothing I can do, I couldn't risk it and just take meat near a bunch of goblins, right?
Since their numbers were so large, I didn't want to risk using the same blood and guts trap as before. If before, in a place with fewer goblins, we ended up attracting a group with seven, here it might be a recurring occurrence.
To that plan work fine here, I'd have to splatter a lot more guts and blood than before, but given the amount of them, that would be impossible with just me. Even if I tried, they would surely finish quickly and move on to the next point. If that happened, not only would my effort be futile, but I would also run the risk of encountering huge groups frantically chasing the smell of blood.
"That's going to be hard..."
***
Following my logical side, I decided to retreat some distance from that goblin lair.
Since I didn't have many options available, I decided to go with the basics. I started exploring the outskirts of the goblin lair and eliminated the small groups I found.
Even though I said outskirts, it wasn't really close, I had taken a fairly safe distance.
The plan I had in mind was pretty simple, I would slowly reduce their numbers as I leveled up. Then, when the opportunity arose, I will act more aggressively and take them all out.
Unfortunately, that wasn't something that looked like it was going to happen anytime soon.
Not only had I had no luck finding many groups even though I had spent most of the afternoon, but my XP bar was rising very slowly. Even if I considered that the goblins were of a lower level than me, the amount that they filled in the bar with was very little. Not even half of it was filled yet.
If I had to take a shot, I'd probably be going through some sort of bottleneck, but I guess I'd have to wait and see.
***
When I returned to camp, I intended to take out the clay pots and clean them, but realized I had forgotten something.
According to the sparse system information in my mind, inventory not only preserves food by keeping it fresh, it also preserves the state of things. With that said, the clay pots I had saved were still warm when I took them out of the inventory.
After setting the pans to cool, I prepared dinner and went to bed early.
***
On the next day, in addition to giving Rin another morning bath against her wishes, I also poured some water over the pots that had already cooled down.
Even though the pots were clean, they weren't quite ready for use yet, if I wanted to avoid the clay taste in my food, I needed to cure the pots. Fortunately, this wasn't difficult, all I needed to do was to coat them with oil and heat them until they dried. For obvious reasons, there was no way I could get oil in this forest, fortunately, greasy boar lard was a good substitute.
Of course, first, I had to remove the hide from the boar, get some of the fat from the belly, cut it up and take it to the fire to turn it into lard. Although it had no seasoning at all, the smell it exuded was incredibly delicious and the resulting greaves were crispy and tasty.
About curing the pots, although an easy task, there were many of them to cure, so I left some for later.
"Well, at first glance, it looks good for use."
I said as I positioned the pot on the fire after washing them after curing.
Meanwhile, behind my back, Rin was staring at the pot with a hateful look.
If it wasn't for me stopping her, she would have already used her club to break all the pots and pans.
"That's what you get for not listening to me."
I said with a scolding tone to Rin who gave me a stray dog look.
A few minutes ago, when I was preparing the lard, I gave her some pieces of crackling. Probably because of that, when I started to cure the pots, Rin was attracted to the tasty smell of melted boar lard spread on the pots and wanted to eat them. Even though I ordered her not to try to eat the pots, the moment I turned my back, she ignored my words.
The next moment all I heard was a scream and when I turned around she was holding her tongue. Then, with a war cry, she grabbed her club and was ready to fight the pots. Luckily, I managed to stop her in time before she started breaking everything.
This event made me realize something, while Rin's submission to me seems absolute, my orders are not followed on some occasions. Or maybe, on this occasion, since she had no intention of eating and only wanted to lick, this circumvented the order?
When it comes to Kurama, even without being under the effect of the tamer skill, he still obeys as far as possible. It's hard to tell if it's because of the remaining influence of the skill or simply because he likes me.
"Well, never mind, let's just inaugurate that pot right away."
I dumped some of the boar lard into the large clay pot that was on the wood fire. Interestingly enough, unlike the lard I'm familiar with, the greasy boar lard had a creamy appearance and the color was yellowish when cold. It reminded me a bit of the look of margarine, only with a better flavor.
After the lard had melted, I threw the rabbit meat pieces in the pan and let them fry. When the meat gained a thin crust and started to stick to the bottom of the pan, I poured in some water and stirred it until it dried. Since all I intended to do at the moment was simple preparation, the meat was ready.
Since I didn't have any quality seasoning at all, I tried to make the meat look as good as possible.
Although I didn't have many expectations initially and was only doing this to satisfy my own desire, the smell was amazing.
"Well, I hope it's not just the smell."
Preparing three dishes, I placed portions for myself, Rin and Kurama.
As Kurama approached, sniffing the food, Rin kept a small distance while watching hatefully. It was understandable, after all, her plate was the same one she burned her tongue on and I stopped her from smashing.
Even if she held a grudge against the dish, she soon forgot about it when she saw me and Kurama devouring the meat.
As expected, the boar lard was amazing, even without any seasoning, it added flavor to the meat. Despite the lack of salt and the meat getting a bit of a clay aftertaste from the pan, the result was better than I expected.
Not the best meat I've ever had, but given my current conditions, I guess it could be considered good.
After we finished our meal, it was time for the hunt again.