Goblin Dependency

Unaffected by the atmosphere on the field, Xia Nan and the others, who were originally squeezed to the outer edge of the crowd, neither wanted to act so hastily nor rush into the first wave of the most fanatical adventurers’ charge.

So they simply slipped into a Grocery Store by the roadside, looking out at the packed crowd on the street.

"There are way too many people. There weren’t this many at the fishery this morning, right?"

Alton stood on tiptoe, his gaze sweeping over the adventurers hurrying back and forth outside, a puzzled look on his face.

"A lot of them are just here to join the fun." Ellison shook his head. "They’re not actually participants in the event."

The truth was exactly as he said.

When they were signing up for the lottery event in the morning, although there had seemed to be a lot of adventurers in the square, compared to all the travelers who had come to Stodd on the "Thousand Pile Island" for the Moon Tide Banquet to enjoy the festival, they were actually just a small portion.

Take the Vengeance Blade Fleet as an example. Even though the entire fleet had come to the island, in the end, the only ones who managed to sign up in time were just Xia Nan, Alton, and Sasha.

Many adventurers on the island had only learned about the event after the first-round fishing competition.

At this moment, the vast majority of the people in the crowd on the square were basically those who had heard the news later and come over just to watch the excitement.

They of course didn’t have the qualifications to participate, but that didn’t stop these bystanders from joining in the event, searching together with the participants for the Deep Sea Resonating Stones hidden all over the island.

And if one of them really got lucky and found the required quest target for advancing...

Whether they sold it to a participant who’d come up empty-handed to make some extra coin, or handed it over to an adventurer they wanted to befriend as a way of establishing connections—there were plenty of ways to handle it.

You could even see adventurer teams like the "Furious Tide Battle Gang" and the "Wind Forger," which had multiple Professional Level members, with many of their people helping the teammates who’d advanced to the second round search for resonating stones.

Of course, Xia Nan’s group didn’t go trouble the folks on the Vengeance Blade Blade for help.

After all, this was just a warm-up event before the Moon Tide Banquet. Even if you passed all five activities, all you got was a lottery qualification, not some direct special reward.

There was no need to bother the crew who already had their own affairs to deal with over something like this.

It was a bit of a pity, though. Xia Nan had observed very carefully just now: the Deep Sea Resonating Stone in Flynn’s hand seemed to have gone through some special processing. In the flowing deep-blue luster within, a few streaks of silver had been added, making it noticeably different from the Deep Sea Resonating Stones in Xia Nan’s memory.

Otherwise... he remembered that on the way here, he had just searched an entire crate of them from that merchant ship torn apart by a Windkind Octopus. If those counted for the event, the four of them would have more than enough.

As things stood now, there was no shortcut.

Strictly speaking, though, if they really wanted to take a shortcut, it wasn’t like there was no way at all.

Just like that barbarian from earlier had asked: even if they couldn’t find any themselves, they could just squat near the square and wait for the rabbit, and as long as someone else collected Deep Sea Resonating Stones, in a certain sense, that would still count as them completing the quest.

From a combat standpoint, Xia Nan, the Vengeance Blade Blade crew beside him, and even Ellison did indeed have the qualifications to "wait for the rabbit."

However, like he’d just said, this was only an ordinary warm-up event. There was no need to gratuitously offend other adventurer factions over a lottery shot whose final outcome wasn’t even guaranteed.

That just wasn’t Xia Nan’s style, nor that of the Vengeance Blade Blade Squad.

If possible, it was still best to go find them themselves.

Thinking along those lines, Xia Nan began to consider their next search plan.

He turned around, intending to discuss the plan with his teammates.

Only to realize that at some point, Half-Elf Alton had disappeared from his side.

As if realizing something, his gaze suddenly lifted toward the square ahead, where the crowd was gradually thinning.

There, the little guy had already gone up to stand in front of Flynn, who had just stepped down from the wooden platform and sat back in the pavilion.

"Mr. Flynn, so there are only one hundred Deep Sea Resonating Stones on the island in total?"

"Of course." The middle-aged man in formal attire answered with a smile. "I personally oversee the entire process. Exactly one hundred stones, not one more, not one less."

"I see..." Alton blinked. "Then... may I ask, does the one you just showed also count among those hundred?"

Flynn’s smile didn’t change.

He didn’t answer, just looked at the Half orc in front of him, tacitly acknowledging it.

"Could you give it to me? I really want to take part in this lottery event."

Alton’s attitude was earnest, voicing his thoughts directly as always.

Their conversation drew the attention of the nearby adventurers, some of whom were quick-witted enough to realize right away what the little guy was up to.

But before they could step forward to contest it—

Right there in front of everyone’s eyes, under the gaze of many, Flynn took the Deep Sea Resonating Stone he had just displayed from his waist again and handed it to Alton.

Without the slightest pause, the little guy barely let it brush his hand before, in the very next second, he passed the rock back to Flynn.

"Well? Does that count as a successful submission, Mr. Flynn?"

"Congratulations, lucky little one." Flynn took back the resonating stone and smiled. "You’ve just become the first participant on the island to advance to the third-round activity."

He didn’t bother to lower his voice.

The adventurers still lingering around the square were first taken aback, and then, after hearing the explanation from the bystanders who had witnessed the whole process, they all began pounding their chests in regret.

Xia Nan, for his part, was just as surprised.

But thinking it over, Alton’s approach was really unexpected yet reasonable.

The little guy was a Divine Favor of the Goddess of fortune Taimola, with sky-high luck Attributes—that was one side of it.

But if anyone thought luck was his only outstanding trait, they couldn’t be more wrong.

No one knew why exactly the goddess favored this little guy. Maybe it was because he was so devout about seeking out casinos in every town to perform rituals for Her, or maybe because the Half orc race was naturally tied to "luck" itself.

But Alton’s own personality—pure as a child—should also be one of the necessary reasons.

Precisely because of that, the little guy could get one step ahead of everyone on the field, bring his bizarre train of thought into play, and become the first to fulfill the event requirements and advance.

"How’d you even think of that?"

Behind him, Sasha’s furry long tail swayed as she looked ahead at the little guy, who was openly and unabashedly smug, and asked.

"Honestly, I wasn’t sure it’d work. I just thought I’d go up and ask." Alton put his hands on his hips and grinned. "Didn’t expect it to actually work out."

"Just lucky, hehe."

"..."

At this point, the four of them still needed to collect three more Deep Sea Resonating Stones to all advance together into the next round of tasks.

Leaving the Grocery Store, they walked along the streets of Stodd Island.

As they carefully observed their surroundings, they discussed their search plan.

There were in fact some clues about where the resonating stones were hidden.

Judging from the examples Flynn had given when explaining the rules earlier, these rocks weren’t only hidden in concealed spots in the natural environment. Some had also been entrusted to the town’s residents for safekeeping by the organizers.

As for the former, among the four of them, Xia Nan was the most sharp-eyed—and even among all the adventurers on the island, his Perception Attribute definitely ranked among the very top—giving them a considerable advantage.

As for the latter, it tested their information-gathering ability more.

They would need to communicate more with the island’s residents to see if they could uncover any useful clues.

As they talked, Xia Nan’s steps suddenly halted.

His brows drew together slightly as he looked toward the other side of the street.

There, outside a somewhat shabby wooden house, a group of commoners were gathered anxiously, their faces twisted with Anger and Fear.

Faint sounds of pleading and screaming drifted from within the crowd.