Green Monster Epic

The journey home was smooth, almost without incident, except for the tenacious and numerous snake people in the desert, who relentlessly appeared before the team, causing some trouble.

Green Lake Village hadn't changed much in the two months since Allen's departure, but on the second day after Allen's return, many Green Lake villagers gathered in the mountaintop square, surrounding the huge space completely.

As the number of clansmen in the village gradually increased, the square, which was originally large enough to accommodate the entire clan, was now almost unable to hold everyone.

Even Allen and the few involved today could only stand on the stone fort balcony on the north side of the square, announcing the theme of today's meeting to all the clansmen present.

"This time, it has been found that the bear goblin Lacey, the earth goblin Hanji, the dwarf goblin Angel, Sivi, and Margaret have engaged in misconduct and embezzled public property of our tribe, totaling 155 gold coins and 37 silver coins.

Lacey, do you admit this fact?"

Allen stood on the balcony, filled his lungs with air, and with the help of the amplification technique cast with a scroll, announced the crimes committed by the five goblins tied up beside him to the more than a thousand clansmen below.

If it weren't to serve as a warning to the clansmen, Allen wouldn't have bothered to escort Lacey and the others back to the village from thousands of miles away.

He would have simply left them in the desert like Warren, turning them into nourishment for the earth.

At this time, Allen's face was solemn and somewhat heavy.

The embezzlement by the clansmen had kept him in a bad mood.

In addition, he had to execute this group of bastards in front of everyone, which wouldn't be pleasant for anyone.

"Yes, we did these things."

Lacey's face was pale green, and even her lower body was trembling.

Facing Allen's stern questioning, she didn't offer any excuses and nodded with difficulty.

"Chieftain!!! I was wrong, I won't dare to do it again!!!"

"Chieftain, please spare me this time!!!"

The other goblins, Hanji, was relatively calmer.

At this time, beside Lacey, the two occasionally looked at each other, their eyes full of comfort and affection, cherishing every moment before them.

As for the three dwarf goblins, they already knew what kind of situation they would face next.

At this moment, in front of all the clansmen, they knelt down on the ground with a thud, wailing and crying, begging for Allen's forgiveness and leniency.

"Since they have admitted their mistakes, then they must pay the price!

This is an extremely serious event that has occurred in our tribe so far, and it must be severely punished, absolutely not to be spared."

"I want you to know that some wrong things cannot be done, and some bad habits will cost you your lives!!!"

"Therefore, I have decided to execute Lacey, Hanji, and the other five.

Does anyone have any objections!!!"

"No!!!"

"Kill them!!!"

"Yes, kill them!!!"

Below, some clansmen were emotionally agitated, which was obvious.

The money embezzled by the guys tied up on the balcony belonged to every Green Lake villager present.

Although everyone was still a little unfamiliar with the concept of money, after all, these metals couldn't be exchanged for anything good in the Green Field Plain, selfishness, greed, and unwillingness to suffer losses were the nature of intelligent races.

If the other party had encroached on the benefits that originally belonged to everyone, wouldn't that prove that they had suffered a loss?

Some people thought more clearly and naturally understood what Allen's purpose was in staging this scene, and they strongly supported it.

Even those who had a vague understanding and whose minds were still blurred were echoing the sentiment under the influence of the crowd's commotion, at least it could bring some flavor to this boring life!

As long as the person being killed wasn't themselves, then it didn't matter!

The indifference of the wilderness natives was evident.

"Since everyone agrees, then I announce that Lacey, Hanji, Angel, Sivi, and Margaret will be executed today, effective immediately!!!"

"Wow!!!"

"Good!!!"

"Spare me!!!"

"Chieftain, please let me go this time!!!"

Various chaotic sounds entered Allen's ears, but Allen ignored them.

He only glanced at the room in the stone fort behind him, where dozens of Green Field tribe youths were standing solemnly, led by Shi Sheng, Tom, and other excellent young members of the clan.

At this time, each of them held a sharp, cold-shining dagger in their hands, their expressions solemn but their eyes filled with fluster and trepidation.

Compared to Allen and the older generation who were accustomed to the laws of survival in the wilderness, such as killing and annexation, Kuer and the new generation who basically grew up and lived in the village were the most reluctant to harm the five clansmen who had made mistakes before them.

From childhood, under Allen's deliberate guidance, they had a strong sense of responsibility and bond with the tribe and clansmen.

They saw the efforts of these adults and kept them in mind.

Although they were green-skinned natives from remote wilderness areas, they actually had some of the human ethics of the civilized world, because Allen needed to rely on this to unite everyone's hearts and strengthen the tribe step by step.

However, the drawbacks of doing so were also not small, that was, the young people lacked some ruthlessness and indifference, which could be considered an anomaly among the Mansa wilderness natives.

At this time, under Allen's care, they naturally lived very comfortably, but when they embarked on their own paths in the future, they might lose their lives because of this, which Allen didn't want to see.

The matter of Leonard had sounded a warning bell for Allen.

Although he didn't think that what he was doing now was completely wrong, there were indeed many aspects that made Kuer and the new generation of young people lose many of the means and characteristics to survive in the wilderness.

Fortunately, it was not too late to wake up now.

"You, pick up the daggers in your hands, one person come forward and choose a target, cut off a piece of flesh no less than 2 inches from the other person's body, and insert a knife into the other person's body, the wound must be more than 1 inch deep past the blade."

The young people below were holding daggers at this time, and after hearing Allen's expressionless request, they were in an uproar, looking at Allen with pleading and refusal in their eyes, but they were all glared back by Allen with cold and stern eyes, and no one dared to speak.

"Tom, you go first!!!"

Allen pointed his big hand at the dwarf goblin Tom at the front of the line.

Tom's little face, which was almost crying, struggled for a while, and then stepped forward weakly.

The short distance of a few meters was as long and arduous as a chasm.

The young people Allen had chosen this time were all young people in the clan who were 16 to 22 years old.

Most of these young people grew up in the village and were no strangers to Lacey and Sivi, and some had even been breastfed in Lacey's arms.

At this time, seeing the desperate and pleading expressions on Lacey's faces, the dagger in Tom's hand was so heavy that it became very difficult for him to even lift it up.

Even though Tom himself was already a level 7 warrior, and was an expected talent among the dwarf goblin clansmen, Tom hesitated for a long time and didn't know where to stab his dagger.

In the square below, a group of goblin adults began to shout and scold,嫌嫌 Tom for not being quick enough.

Among them were even Tom's close elders.

These people, who were usually very kind to Tom, now had cold and crazy expressions in their eyes, as if the five clansmen who had made mistakes on the balcony were no longer their clansmen.

The trembling hand moved down little by little.

Tom finally chose to attack the earth goblin Hanji.

This earth goblin had not stayed in the village for a long time, and then went to Thornsburg.

Among the people who had made mistakes, his relationship with Tom was the coldest.

"Ah~~~~~"

Hanji hadn't even screamed yet, but Tom, who was trembling with the dagger on Hanji's body, and whose hands were tightly gripping the hilt, shouted out.

Seeing the dagger pierce Hanji's arm, and little by little shaving off a piece of green flesh, Hanji's eyes were full of pain, but he forcibly endured it.

Chieftain Allen had talked to Lacey and Hanji before the execution.

Although they had indeed made mistakes and must be punished, their children were innocent.

Allen promised them that he would let the children grow up healthy and not be subjected to any abuse.

Just for this promise, Hanji and Lacey decided to bravely take responsibility for their mistakes and face their deaths.

However, although they had long been prepared for this, when they saw death approaching, Hanji's heart couldn't help but feel a burst of weakness, and he almost lost control of his bowels on the spot.

The other dwarf goblins were even more不堪, with all kinds of wailing and cursing emerging from their mouths, and they were rolling around on the ground, trying to break free from the shackles of the ropes.

"Hmph!!!"

Allen snorted coldly, and the warriors guarding the five clansmen stepped forward and directly blocked their lips and tongues, and tied them to the stone stakes that had been erected on the balcony early on with ropes.

After Tom waved his hand and lightly stabbed Hanji in the muscular butt, he was completely out of strength.

He supported himself on the railing on the balcony, and it took him a long time to regain his strength.

The dagger, hanging with the flesh shaved from Hanji's body, returned to Allen, looking at Allen pitifully.

"Okay, go in and wait!!!"

Allen's eyes were cold, without emotional fluctuations, and then he pointed to the next person to come forward.

Tom hadn't even walked out of the balcony yet, and his spirit had almost collapsed.

Crystals of tears streamed down from the corners of his eyes.

At this time, his heart was filled with resentment towards Allen, why did he have to make him face such a cruel scene, and let his hands be stained with the blood of his once close clansmen.

On the balcony, every young person who was called up by Allen to cut flesh and stab people felt heavy and desolate.

No one could hold on when they came down.

"Teacher, I want to go first!!!"

There were still several companions in front of Kuer's line.

Seeing that it was about to be Erin's turn, she raised her hand first, breaking the silence in the stone fort.

Allen's gaze swept over, his icy eyes piercing Coeur's defenses, forcing her to exert all her strength to resist the pressure emanating from Allen. At the same time, her bright eyes showed no retreat, meeting Allen's gaze without flinching.

"Good!"

Suddenly, just when everyone thought Allen wouldn't agree, his tone softened, and he nodded blandly, then allowed Coeur to step out of the ranks and walk forward.

At first, Coeur's steps were somewhat hesitant as she moved forward, but with each step she took, her stride became more determined, and by the time she reached Lacy and the others, she had already suppressed all her weak emotions.

"Aunt Lacy, I'm sorry!"

Coeur's eyes were filled with apology as she bent forward, offering an apology to Lacy.

Then, as Coeur straightened up, her right hand was already raised high, and then, with a swift motion, the sharp dagger directly pierced Lacy's chest, without any hesitation, inserting the entire dagger along the gap between her ribs.

"Ah!!"

Not only were the youths in the stone fortress watching Coeur's actions in shock, but even the Green Wilds people below, who were merely spectators, couldn't help but gasp.

"Pfft ~ ~"

As the knife was pulled out, a muffled sound came from Lacy's chest, and her trembling body suddenly went limp, her head lolling to the side, and she lost control of her bowels.

"Swish ~ ~"

At this moment, when Coeur cut a piece of flesh from Lacy's body, Lacy was completely unaware, feeling no pain at all.

"Teacher, I've completed the task!"

Although Coeur looked very calm at this moment, she presented the dagger, dripping with green blood, and the piece of bloody flesh with hair attached, to Allen.

"…En, go back."

Allen didn't show any embarrassment or anger because of Coeur's ruthless actions, and still nodded expressionlessly, allowing Coeur to leave.

Coeur didn't leave but stood behind Allen, suppressing the surging emotions in her heart, quietly watching the team of dozens of people carry out Allen's task.

When she saw Allen instructing people to untie the lifeless Lacy from the stone pillar and carry her away, Coeur's expression changed, and she began to worry about Eileen, who was about to go on stage.

To Coeur's surprise, although Eileen's movements were no longer as crisp and neat as usual when carrying out Allen's orders, and she no longer had a calm demeanor, she still, in trembling, distorted movements, sent the gnome Margaret away with a knife, performing the same actions as Coeur.

Subsequently, few of the youths could perform such ruthless actions as Coeur and Eileen, and they still tried their best not to cause too much damage to the remaining three elders while fulfilling Allen's request.

It wasn't until Stoneborn, Treeborn, and another earth gnome youth named Anxi stepped forward and took the lives of these remaining three tribesmen that this grand ceremony of punishing Lacy and the others for their embezzlement finally came to an end.

"Remember this, all of you!!!"

"If I ever find any of you bastards, mongrels, who are disloyal to the tribe and infringe upon the interests of the tribe, I will repay the debt they owe with their blood!!!"

After the five prisoners were punished one by one, Allen spoke again, his fierce and cold words, coupled with the still-wet blood of the tribesmen between the stone pillars of the balcony, finally made the Green Wilds tribe members below regain their sense of awe, and they silently and fearfully looked at Allen's somewhat thin body on the high platform.

The crowd in the square gradually dispersed. Allen felt somewhat empty inside, but it wasn't time for him to relax yet. Next, he had an important lesson to give to the tribe's new generation.

"Today's lesson is like a coming-of-age ceremony for you!!"

"In the civilized world outside, for those young people who are entering adulthood and are about to shoulder the burdens of their families and clans, they will use dances and other forms to bid farewell to their innocent childhood. But I, on the other hand, will use the survival rules of the wilderness to tell you a truth."

"Put away your unnecessary compassion. For those who have no hope of survival, the greatest kindness is to let them go to death cleanly and neatly!!"

"Those of you who think you are helping the tribesmen just now by leaving them a few breaths, letting them linger for a little longer, are actually not helping them, but making them suffer and agonizing as they wait for death!!"

"In the wilderness, death is never the most terrifying thing, but waiting for death in despair is the most painful thing."

Allen's expression was as bland and cold as ever, but the words he spoke struck the softest parts of the youths' hearts like tangible objects. The scene they had just forgotten from their minds resurfaced, and many of them began to sob.

"But, but…"

Tom felt somewhat unconvinced in his heart. As the most intelligent person among the youths, he really couldn't understand why the teacher had to make everyone face all this so cruelly.

"There is no 'but'. The wilderness has always been this cruel!! In the future, when the people around you have lost hope of living, remember to give them a quick death!"

"When facing your enemies, don't be soft-hearted. As long as the opponent is still holding a weapon and fighting against you, don't stop your attacks until they breathe their last!"

"Don't forgive those who betray you, those who harm you and the tribe!!"

"…"

"Remember what I'm saying now, and engrave it into your minds. Now that you have come of age, the future of the Green Wilds tribe depends on you!! Every choice and decision you make will ultimately have a profound impact on the tribe!!"

After Allen's earnest speech, the youths walked out of the stone fortress with various emotions and expressions. This experience today would probably take them a long time to recover from. In the end, whether they could learn anything from this unique lesson, and how much they could learn, was something Allen couldn't predict.

After the youths had all left, Snake Flower, Philip, and other high-ranking members of the tribe, who had watched this scene from the sidelines, sat down at the ironwood table with Allen, their expressions complex.

"Was I too cruel in doing this?"

Allen's cold face suddenly melted, showing a bit of melancholy, and his expression became somewhat depressed.

After all, these were children he had watched grow up. Stoneborn, Coeur, and a few others were students he had personally cultivated. It would be a lie to say that he didn't feel sorry for what they had gone through. Even the most powerful person has a sentimental side, and Allen was no exception.

"Cruel? You should have let go long ago and let these little bastards go out and make their own way!"

Snake Flower seemed to have even less emotional fluctuation than Allen. Even though his adopted daughter, Coeur, was among them, he felt that today's lesson was full of wilderness characteristics. Back then, when they were fighting with Bonefire's gnolls and Shattered Bone's kobolds for food on the Green Wilds Plain, they faced even more cruel situations than these young people.

The others didn't speak. Philip was now accustomed to the wilderness survival philosophy. Although these ideas were not recognized in the civilized world, if you wanted to survive in this lawless wilderness, you had to make some changes after all.

They sat in silence for a long time, their moods mostly uneasy. Finally, at Allen's urging, they left one after another, leaving Allen alone to stare blankly in his stone fortress for a long time.

The matter came to an end, and Green Lake Village returned to peace, but it was filled with much less laughter. In the past, when the youths practiced their martial arts in the square in the morning, there was often laughter floating around, but now, although the youths' daily morning training hadn't stopped, whenever their little faces swept past Allen's stone fortress balcony, they couldn't help but look away, as if the events that had happened a few days ago had just passed.

However, Allen was not in the village at this time. He knew that the youths might have various negative emotions when they saw him at this moment, so he simply took that little bastard Linus and ventured into the wilderness, preparing to hone this little bastard.

That little guy Linus hadn't recovered from the fear of killing someone with his own hands before. Now, whenever he saw Allen, there was an indescribable feeling in his eyes, and then he fled as if escaping, running away from Allen's sight, no matter how Allen called out to him.

There was no other way. In order to resolve Linus's inner conflict, Allen took the time to forcibly take Linus on a wilderness tour.

"Eat something!"

Allen took out a portion of roasted meat from his dimensional pocket and handed it to Linus, who was listless and drooping his head.

"…I'm not hungry."

A large part of what Linus learned in the Druid School was to let them feel the breath of nature with all their heart and to experience the faint emotions emitted by various creatures in nature. Coupled with the rules and laws formed by the Thornfort Elf Kingdom over tens of thousands of years, Linus, this wilderness kid, had too many ethical constraints, so he was filled with guilt and remorse for killing a person for no reason.

However, what he didn't know was that Allen couldn't stand the aura emanating from him, which had made him lose the attitude towards life that a wilderness gnome should have.

A few days ago, Allen didn't let Linus, who was only 14 years old, participate in the lesson he gave to Coeur and the others because it was too direct and cruel, otherwise Linus would have already had a mental breakdown by now.

"Not hungry? You'll have to personally slaughter a few prey and bring them back later, otherwise you'll have to go hungry for today and the next few days!"

Allen glared, scaring Linus into quickly reaching out and taking the roasted meat.

"Our village never raises waste, especially someone like you, who is still carrying a burden!!"

The "burden" was referring to Linus's pet, Little White. Since returning, it had become the village children's favorite, pampered and living more comfortably than Linus himself.

"But the teachers at the school said that we Druids should not easily harm living things, as that would disrupt the balance of nature!"

Linus continued to argue, perhaps because Alan had forced him to kill, which had triggered the teenager's rebellious streak. Although he was clearly afraid of Alan, the chieftain, he couldn't help but argue with Alan every time they spoke.

"Get the hell out of here!"

Alan smacked Linus on the head, causing the boy to roll his eyes.

"If you don't harm living things, are you just going to starve to death? If you don't hunt, that Little White of yours will tear you apart and eat you! Now that would be a tragedy!"

"You little bastard should meet with the demons and try to reason with them."

The two bickered as they slowly traveled northeast along the Turbidwater Creek in the wilderness. Only the area near Turbidwater Creek still had relatively abundant animal resources.

"Shhh!"

Alan smelled blood coming from the bushes to the east. He quietly gestured for silence and slowly crept over to investigate, leaving Linus to hide in a blind spot. Soon, Alan returned, his eyes filled with an unreadable expression as he looked at Linus.

"Come on, your chance has come!"

Alan grinned and, taking advantage of Linus's forward movement, grabbed his pants, used a clever trick to lift him up, and tossed him into the bushes a dozen meters away. Linus himself was unharmed, except for the fright.

"Ah~~~"

Caught off guard, Linus let out a long, cracked cry as he flew through the air for a moment. When he landed, his heart was still pounding. Angrily, he got up to complain to Alan.

"Roar!"

"Tch!"

Suddenly, several animals roared and threatened, startled. Linus forgot about scolding Alan and turned around, his face changing colors.

In front of him, four wild coyotes were devouring a grass sheep. Linus, who aspired to be a Claw Druid, knew very well what wild beasts would do when interrupted while feeding.

Linus carefully avoided making any big movements, quietly chanting an incantation. He almost mispronounced the syllables several times due to his nervousness, but fortunately, the low-level Animal Pacification spell slowly took shape in his hand. Just as Linus was about to raise his hand and cast the spell on the four coyotes, an untimely voice came from behind.

"I want to see how you get along peacefully with these guys. Let's see if they understand you, hehehe!"

Alan didn't mind making things worse. While sneering, he flicked a pebble he picked up from the ground like an arrow, hitting one of the coyotes. It landed at the same time that Linus's Animal Pacification spell was being cast on the coyote.

The spell had just begun to take effect, and the fierce, wary look in the coyote's eyes was fading, but the pain from Alan's pebble hitting it brought back its aggression. Under the influence of the pebble, the four coyotes adopted an attacking stance, crouching low and lunging at Linus's neck, who was less than 1.4 meters tall.

"Tsk tsk tsk, it seems these guys don't want to get along with you peacefully!"

A few coyotes were not enough to threaten a level 7 warrior. Linus was, after all, a spellcaster, and Alan didn't think he would be in any real danger.

Even if there was any danger, Alan was watching from the sidelines and could rescue Linus if his life was threatened.

"What you are experiencing now is what Koir, Irene, and the other older siblings who grew up with you have already endured. Our Greenwood tribe's goblins deal with these beasts every day to obtain the food that allows us to survive."

"In Thornburg, no matter how your teachers educated you, in the wilderness, what I teach you now is the way of the wilderness, the balance of nature!"

Linus was a mess, dodging the coyotes' attacks while trying to concentrate and cast spells. The bushes and vines on the ground became his helpers under the influence of Linus's spells, hindering and delaying the coyotes' attacks.

When Linus finally managed to cast a spell after great effort and released it into a nearby bush, the bush slowly stretched and contracted its branches, and then suddenly pulled up its roots from the soil. After some transformations, it turned into a treant about the same size as a coyote, swaying and rushing to Linus's side, fighting alongside him.

With the addition of the treant, the battle became much easier for Linus. Although the treant's movements were a bit slow, each lash on the coyote's body with its vine-whip seemed to carry some liquid that stimulated pain, often causing the coyote to howl, making its next movements much more cautious.

"SU… DU…"

Another spell took shape, directly enveloping the four coyotes' heads. Combined with the intonation from Linus's mouth, the coyotes' movements became sluggish for a time, and their eyes became much more dull.

Just as Linus's mood relaxed, suddenly the cunning glint flashed in the eyes of two of the coyotes. They suddenly accelerated, bypassing the treant's defense and pouncing directly at Linus.

"Ah!"

One coyote bit directly into the leather armor covering Linus's arm. The sharp teeth penetrated the leather armor, causing Linus's arm, which was waving to cast a spell, to pause, and the current spell was declared a failure. At the same time, Linus couldn't help but let out a cry of pain.

The other coyote stepped on the back of its companion, using the momentum to jump up. A stench came from mid-air, and Linus only felt a darkness in front of his eyes. When he tried to raise his hand to protect his face, he realized that the coyote on his arm hadn't let go. In the end, he could only watch as the other coyote's ferocious teeth came closer and closer, and the warm, rotten breath rushed towards him.

"What a waste!"

Alan's voice suddenly came from his ear. With a 'poof' sound, a coyote's howling stopped abruptly. Linus felt a warm, bloody liquid flowing down his cheeks, dripping onto his body and between his legs.

"Bang!"

The other coyote hanging on Linus's arm was kicked by Alan into the air. It twitched when it landed again, trying to stand up, but it couldn't. It howled in pain.

"Get lost!"

Alan's restrained, powerful aura emanated from his body. The other two coyotes, whose reactions had been sluggish under Linus's Animal Daze spell and had briefly abandoned their attack, were stimulated to stand on end, their waists arched, but they no longer made any attacking movements. The animals' strong intuition told them that the tall humanoid creature who had been watching them hunt the goblin earlier was far from being someone they could provoke.

While cautiously making threatening growls, the two coyotes slowly retreated, until they believed they were out of Alan's attack range. Then, they turned and fled into the wilderness with their tails between their legs.

Linus, who had just experienced a death threat, was now a mess, cleaning the blood from his body. The treant that had been transformed from a bush also re-rooted itself in the wilderness after the spell's duration ended. However, its original lush, dense leaves had become sparse after this intense action, and its leaves and branches looked weak and lifeless, as if they had been exposed to the sun for several days.

Alan walked to the coyote that was dying but still struggling, ignoring its menacing teeth and constant threatening movements. He punched it on the top of its head, ending its short life.

"Thud!"

Alan casually tossed the limp coyote carcass to Linus, piling it up with the other coyote's body, which he had decapitated with a knife.

"These two coyotes will be your harvest for today!"

"However, don't think these two coyotes will provide much meat. If you don't hunt a prey like a mountain goat before tonight, you'll still go to bed hungry!"

Alan's face was stern, and he was very dissatisfied with Linus's previous battle. Clearly, Linus should have had other magical spells that he didn't cast, but in the end, he was almost killed by just four coyotes. In Alan's opinion, this was completely unacceptable.

"Remember, the balance of nature is never about not harming living things, but about following the law of natural survival, the survival of the fittest, but not killing without reason!"

Next, Linus's hard days will probably continue for a while!

Sorry, I have to break my promise, my friend hasn't left yet.