Goblin Dependency

Summer Nan frowned slightly as he looked at the chaotic scene by the shore.

Clearly, this was not normal.

His keen perception allowed him to easily capture the details that ordinary adventurers found difficult to notice.

Including but not limited to the fish from a fallen barrel that had clearly decreased in quantity, the fresh blood on the ground that had yet to fully coagulate, the drag marks gradually being washed away by the tide in the mud, and...

Summer Nan crouched down and picked up a familiar green-blue scale from beside a broken fishing rod.

"So it’s just Fishman Goblin, how come they’re even here?"

If there were no surprises, he guessed that the missing adventurer was likely attacked by Sha Hua Fishmen.

But...

Gurgle—

A bubble sound, hidden within the noise of the waves, was impossible for ordinary people to detect but sounded abrupt to Summer Nan’s perception, suddenly came from the sea.

Glancing in that direction, he could vaguely make out several hideous green-blue shadows lurking beneath the waterline, poised to ambush.

A strange expression appeared on Summer Nan’s face.

...

Resistance is futile, like the waves crashing on the rocks, fleeting.

Abyssal Stream armor shined with a faint light at its chest, the vortex pattern glowing amid currents escorting azure blue blood.

A Fishman Elite Guard, along with three Sha Hua Fishman minions, had already lost their heads, transformed into unmoving cold corpses floating silently in the seawater.

Holding the Ash Fall Straight Sword in his right hand, Summer Nan looked at the fishman bodies in front of him, contemplating.

Why would Sha Hua Fishmen appear here?

These vicious sea demons from the deep sea held malice against other races, and often attacked human settlements on remote islands and passing merchant ships.

But inherently they were still a kind of sapient being, having developed their own civilization, not the kind driven purely by instincts and desires.

They clearly knew the scale of enemies within their capacity to handle.

Thus, over the years in the Southern Islands, it was mostly the off-sea, sparsely populated small villages that faced frequent attacks from Sha Hua Fishmen.

Places like Suo Yu Bay, with its assembly of high-level professionals and complete defenses in large human settlements, were hardly ever targeted.

Now, the "Thousand Pile Island" Stodd where Summer Nan stood had long been one of the Southern Islands’ major gathering spots due to its local specialties, not like an ordinary small fishing village.

Especially this year, serving as the venue for the Moon Tide Banquet, recent times have seen many powerful adventurers coming and going.

Under normal circumstances, as long as they had a bit of thinking ability, Sha Hua Fishmen would not consider this place a target.

So... is it just a coincidence?

Summer Nan pondered internally.

After all, those he just killed was not a large-scale Sha Hua Fishmen settlement, but merely one elite paired with three minions, possibly having mistakingly entered the nearby sea.

Yet considering the fishmen’s increasingly aggressive behavior as the banquet approached, he couldn’t help but feel like there might be something odd here.

Being inherently cautious, Summer Nan heightened his alert internally.

He planned to report his discovery to the sheriff on Stodd Island after the fishing tournament ended.

After looking around in the water to confirm no more Sha Hua Fishmen were present.

Summer Nan paddled his way back to shore.

Suddenly, a large dark purple shadow was caught by his peripheral vision.

He looked in that direction.

What he saw before him was an unusually strange-looking large fish.

It appeared to be a ray, about three meters long, with a flat and wide body, a dark purple smooth surface covered in dark markings.

Its most notable feature was the whip-like sting hanging from its body’s end, looking much like a scorpion’s, with layers of distinctive chitinous shell.

——Purple Vortex Ray?

Summer Nan recognized this type of fish.

He recalled that there was a wine named after it at the Three-legged Sea Dog Tavern, and he had casually asked the tavern’s owner, Hera, about it.

Though he had never seen it in person, undoubtedly, this uniquely shaped fish perfectly matched the characteristics of the Purple Vortex Ray described by Hera.

Even more crucially, Summer Nan clearly remembered that Hera once mentioned that this type of ray was a rare sea fish, and the venom in its sting was an auxiliary material for making various resistance potions.

A typical 1.5-meter long Purple Vortex Ray could fetch nearly two gold coins in the market.

Presently, this Purple Vortex Ray drawn in by fishman blood had grown to twice the usual size.

No need to mention the value, which had clearly surpassed the one gold coin required by the fishing tournament.

Floating in the seawater, looking at the purple ray leisurely swimming toward him, Summer Nan felt a bit conflicted.

The competition time was limited already, not to mention he wasted several minutes on those fishmen earlier, making time even tighter.

And on top of that, his catch was meager, making it very difficult to meet the event’s requirements.

Summer Nan was never one to be overly stubborn, and on the other hand, the competition’s rules weren’t particularly stringent.

There would be other opportunities to prove his fishing skills.

Since today was truly a luckless day for fishing, perhaps... he didn’t need to dwell on it further.