Green Monster Epic

Chapter 336: The World of Humans (Adding the First Half of the Chapter!)

“Oh, I didn’t expect this little guy to have survived, not bad, not bad!!”

The human female legend, Latifa, glanced at Allen, scrutinizing him with a hint of appreciation.

Latifa, who advanced as a thief, had actually noticed the legendary succubus appearing in the buffer zone. Later, she secretly hid and spied, waiting for a suitable opportunity to launch an assassination attempt on this legendary succubus.

Originally, if Latifa had acted sooner, Allen might not have ended up in his current predicament. However, in the eyes of these legends, warriors like Allen were just cannon fodder. They wouldn't feel much heartache even if many died. Moreover, Allen was a hobgoblin, so Latifa wouldn't pay him any attention.

It wasn't until the succubus was repeatedly countered by Allen's killing moves, revealing a slight flaw in its rage, that Latifa seized the opportunity to sneak over and deliver a backstab, drawing blood directly. Otherwise, even if Allen had been turned into mincemeat by the succubus, Latifa might not have acted.

Allen didn't recognize the human female in front of him. At the time, he was being beaten like a dead dog by the succubus. How could he have had the ability to pay attention to the powerful figure behind him who had come to his rescue? He looked at the eccentric woman with surprise and nodded politely.

“What? Have you two met before?”

Angelo was already used to Latifa's sudden and impolite intrusion. However, when he heard Latifa's words, it seemed that she knew the hobgoblin in front of him, which aroused his curiosity.

“This hobgoblin is a good fellow. The ugly thing, Ipolito, was chasing this hobgoblin the night before yesterday. I took the opportunity to leave a mark on that old dog!!”

Latifa walked closer to Allen, lightly pinching his chin with her soft hand, looking up and down at this hobgoblin who looked almost the same size as an ordinary human. She really didn't expect that the guy from that night was this one, who had actually stood up to several moves from Ipolito, the succubus.

“Oh??”

Originally, Angelo was only receiving Allen out of courtesy. After all, the other party had traveled thousands of miles, crossing the demon blockade line to reach their place, which required great courage and determination. As the kingdom's commander, it was his duty to personally meet these wilderness natives.

Of course, deeper down, there were some unknown important secrets in these wilderness natives' tokens, which was also an important reason why Angelo would meet these guys.

Now, hearing Latifa say that this hobgoblin was able to face the pursuit of a powerful legendary succubus and survive, it meant that the other party was probably not just an ordinary high-level peak warrior, which made Angelo look at this hobgoblin in a different light.

“So, there was such a thing. It seems I underestimated this hobgoblin warrior!!”

“What's your name, Allen, right? Roman.”

A young human warrior wearing chain armor and walking with the wind walked out from the side, standing upright and respectfully responding: “Here!”

“Take Warrior Allen to the manor to recuperate. Fulfill this warrior's requests as much as possible.”

“Yes!”

“Then thank you, Duke!”

Allen nodded slightly to express his gratitude, and then, led by this human warrior, Roman, left the grim castle and headed outwards.

Outside the castle was a small town, full of refugees. Their faces were sallow, and they were dragging their families with them, distributed around the castle and along the streets of the town. Whenever someone passed by, they would shoot out with those lifeless eyes, revealing emotions such as prayer, desire, and so on.

However, when they saw Allen and Roman, two resolute and cold-eyed, fully armed warriors, these human refugees wisely did not dare to surround them, but flickered with dangerous light, constantly peeping at Allen and them.

Not far from leaving the castle, in a quiet alley, Allen witnessed a tragedy with his own eyes. In broad daylight, a group of relatively strong and energetic human males dragged a middle-aged woman, ragged but still somewhat beautiful, into the alley, and then a series of shrill screams rang out, the sound going from high to low, occasionally mixed with a few excited roars.

Allen had heard this kind of sound quite a bit. Often, late at night in Green Lake Village, most of the goblin families would have this kind of sound coming out. The only difference might be that the cries of the females in the village seemed loud, but they were intermittent, as if they were hooking people's souls. But the screams of the human female from the depths of the alley, from beginning to end, Allen only felt noisy and full of pain, which made him frown slightly.

“Sorry, Warrior Allen, this place of ours is considered a front line, so there are more human refugees staying here. Most of the warriors in the army have been sent out to garrison and patrol, so the town is relatively chaotic.”

“But don't worry, the Duke has arranged a very quiet manor for you, and these bastards won't get close. You can rest assured and recuperate.”

Roman was already accustomed to what happened in the alley.

The remaining population of the Spring Country in this hundreds of miles radius is now, according to incomplete statistics, at least 500,000 people living in it. The eating, drinking, and excretion of these 500,000 people all depend on this narrow territory, and more than half of the supplies must be prioritized to the front-line army, so the people at the bottom will definitely live extremely poorly.

At the same time, because of the need to defend against the powerful demon army, all available troops and living forces must be stationed on the front line. Like the small town where Duke Angelo is sitting, there are only hundreds of police and defense forces. Many small towns do not even have any armed forces.

Therefore, the surrounding治安, due to no one maintaining it, has become a mess, and various criminal acts continue to breed.

Duke Angelo doesn't want to take care of it, but he really can't manage it. There are no people, and in the end, they can only break the jar and smash it, only hoping that these guys can be quiet and not cause big trouble. After all, the next replenishment of human resources must be selected from this group of refugees. You can't just grab these guys and chop off their heads, right?

“Oh.”

Since the owner doesn't care, Allen, as a guest, shouldn't say much. Finally, after looking at the deep alley, he continued to leave with Roman.

The manor was Duke Angelo's private property, and the territory was not too large. Besides a few servants, there were no other people inside. After Allen was led into a small wooden building with a separate entrance in the manor, and after instructing the servants in the manor, he bid farewell and left.

After Allen and the others left, Angelo turned his gaze to Latifa and asked with concern: “Were you injured in the fight the night before last?”

“Don't worry, with the strength of that old dog Ipolito, it's not so easy to hurt me!!”

Latifa shook her head, tilting her mouth proudly.

“But it himself, I guess he will be quiet for a while recently and will not appear on the battlefield.”

“Oh?? When did our young lady become so powerful that she can seriously injure Ipolito, this middle-level legend?”

It wasn't that Angelo looked down on Latifa, but that Ipolito, as a demon, still had some natural advantages in the same rank. In the past, when legends fought, their human legends had suffered losses in the hands of the other party, at most it was a tie.

“What kind of look is that? Do you really think I'm worse than that old dog?”

Latifa rolled her eyes directly and glared over, then replied with some smugness: “But the night before last, it was really thanks to the hobgoblin just now. He attracted Ipolito's attention in front, which created a good opportunity for me to assassinate!”

“In that case, this hobgoblin is probably not far from becoming a legend, right!”

Angelo was suddenly enlightened, a flash of light in his eyes, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

“Their wilderness is really willing to throw out such a good seedling, and they are not afraid that it will be damaged in the hands of the demons!”

Having said that, Angelo still felt somewhat touched in his heart. As one of the human kingdoms, the Spring Country has sent envoys to the surrounding forces for help, but until now, there are not a few forces that have given them a certain promise.

The allied forces of humans and other kingdoms were clearly gathering at the border of the Lionheart Kingdom, a thousand miles away. With nearly a million troops, they certainly had the ability to quell this tide of demons, albeit with heavy losses.

Yet, what did they choose in the end?

They merely watched with cold eyes, preferring to expend vast resources and supplies on passively defending the thousands of miles of front lines between the Lionheart Kingdom and the Rose Duchy, rather than stepping forward to help the Spring Country and eliminate this disaster.

And look at those ignorant bumpkins in the Mansha Wilderness. Although they couldn't provide strong military support, the five legendary powerhouses from the Temple of Nature in the early days, along with their Temple Cavalry Regiment composed of fifteen hundred mid-level or higher combat professionals, provided immense help to the kingdom's remaining forces during the battles.

In terms of supplies, these wilderness tribes were not stingy either. Angelo tossed the token he had just received from Allen in his hand. In the drawer under his desk, there were still four or five such tokens quietly lying there. Those were all kinds of supplies that the wilderness tribes had collected for the Spring Country. Each token represented enough equipment and weapons to arm thirty thousand troops.

According to intelligence, the wilderness had sent over twenty warriors to sneak into the Spring Country, and ten of them carried tokens containing expensive, one-time-use dimensional items.

"This Goblin Bear warrior seems to have reached the realm of a half-step legend. Should we try to maintain a relationship with him in advance?"

"I don't care. It's up to you to decide."

Latifa shrugged. She didn't care what would happen to this Goblin Bear in the future. Anyway, she had no ambition to manage any power or organization.

Allen's recovery ability was not bad. After living in this manor for half a month, the injuries to his muscles and bones had gradually healed.

Perhaps it was just an illusion, but Allen felt that his recovery ability was much stronger than before. His mental perception could sense that the air, the earth, and even the drinking water around him were constantly channeling various unknown energies into his body, accelerating his recovery.

"Ah! Charge!"

"Ha!"

A half-earthling human child, wielding a finely carved wooden longsword, wildly slashed and charged towards Allen, interrupting his training.

"Uncle Bear Nose, can you teach me how to sword fight?"

The child was only seven years old, but he was sturdy and very lively. At this moment, he looked at Allen, who was slowly wielding the Bone Cleaver and making the simplest slashing motions, with pleading and expectant eyes. He was the youngest son of Duke Angelo. He had moved to the front lines with his family to show the Duke's determination to defend and not retreat.

The ferocity and madness of the demons, as well as their hatred for creatures of the material world, meant that they would never accept a human prisoner. Therefore, His Majesty King William XVI did not have to worry that Duke Angelo would defect to the enemy with his family while defending the front lines.

As for breaking through the encirclement and fleeing with the tens of thousands of remaining troops on the front lines, it wasn't impossible, but it was almost impossible for such a small force to break through. After all, their opponent, the Demon Lord, had not been using his full strength to attack the Spring Country's capital defense line. To deal with a remnant army of only tens of thousands, they would be very happy and excited to finally be able to go on a killing spree and feast to their heart's content.

Rather than leaving Duke Angelo's family in the capital as hostages, it was better to take advantage of the time before the capital was completely captured by the demons and allow these brave and unwavering warrior subjects to reunite with their families for a few days, which might make everyone more loyal.

This was the method of governance of His Majesty King William XVI.

"If I teach you how to sword fight, what benefits will I get?"

In the village, Allen liked to interact with the innocent and adorable children the most. They wouldn't show flattery or awe because of his status or strength. Allen felt most comfortable and unburdened when interacting with them.

At this moment, seeing this human child, Allen seemed to see the group of kids in the village again. Now that he thought about it, it had been almost two years since he left the village. This was the longest time Allen had been away from his hometown. He wondered what the village looked like now.

Because this human child had stirred up his homesickness, Allen rare made a joke with the child.

"I... I'll give you my favorite candied fruit, okay?"

The child's name was Fidel. After hearing Allen's question, he looked reluctant but couldn't resist longing for Allen's smooth and flowing movements when practicing combat skills. He took out his most precious thing from his pocket and held it above his head, looking at Allen pitifully.

The candied fruit wasn't very clean. It seemed that this little guy had thought about eating it countless times, but he had resisted the temptation, which was why it looked like this.

Gently taking a piece of candied fruit from Fidel's hand, he put it in his mouth and chewed it. A sweet taste filled his heart.

"Okay, considering how generous you are, Uncle will teach you a powerful skill that will guarantee you can beat ten people by yourself after you learn it!"

"Wow! Thank you, Uncle, ah, no, thank you, Teacher."

Children are the easiest to fool. He already envied Allen's daily exercise and the way he wielded the heavy Bone Cleaver with such power when honing his martial skills. He didn't doubt Allen's words at all. At this moment, the corners of his mouth were raised, and his eyes seemed to be fantasizing about his heroic appearance in battle when he grew up.

"...Okay, if you want to learn how to fight, we have to start with the basics. Only by laying a good foundation..."

Allen didn't know that the scene of him teaching Fidel was being watched by Duke Angelo and his middle-aged beautiful wife, who were leaning against each other, gazing into the distance from a window in the main building of the manor.

"Darling, should I ask someone to call little Fidel back?"

The Duchess's eyes revealed a hint of displeasure as she raised her head and gently looked at her husband and asked.

"No, even without this Goblin Bear warrior, I was planning to hire a tutor for Fidel!"

Duke Angelo, on the other hand, looked at this scene with interest. The Goblin Bear's strength was not bad, and now it seemed that he was full of goodwill towards his youngest son. Perhaps in the future, he could rely on this relationship to ask this Goblin Bear for a favor.

"The world is already in such a mess. If our children have the opportunity, it's best to have more self-preservation abilities. It's a pity that all the excellent warriors have already been stationed on the front lines. As the commander of the front lines, I naturally can't arrange a mentor for Fidel for my own selfish reasons."

"This Goblin Bear is quite skilled. He was able to survive being hunted down by a legendary demon. There should be no problem with him teaching our child."

"Oh... okay, whatever you decide."

Although the Duchess had some prejudice against these non-human races and didn't want her children to have too much interaction with them, as her husband said, reality was always cruel. It was no longer the comfortable and carefree life they had two years ago.

"If possible, I want to have this Goblin Bear take Fidel with him when he goes back, at least to leave a bloodline for my Mason family..."

Angelo's family had lived in the Spring Country for hundreds of years. From a young age, Angelo had been instilled with the idea of loyalty to the kingdom. Therefore, he had already secretly resolved to coexist and die with the duchy. Even to protect the duchy, Angelo had transferred his two adult sons to the army as part of the force protecting the duchy.

However, although he had already resolved to sacrifice himself for his country, when he saw the bright smile on his youngest son's face in the distance, Angelo couldn't bear to let him follow his father and family to be buried in this place with little hope.

The higher one's position, the more one understood the current situation of the Spring Country, which was actually just lingering on its last breath.

Especially the movements of the demon army, which were completely incomprehensible. They originally had the strength to directly destroy the Spring Country in one fell swoop, but at the last moment, they divided their forces into several routes and continuously challenged several powerful kingdoms and even empires with a single isolated army.

It was this unexpected behavior of the demons that allowed the Spring Country's capital to persist until now without being completely destroyed.

However, in the mind of Duke Angelo, the commander of the principality, the fall of the remaining territory of the royal capital was only a matter of time. Of course, if the Lionheart Kingdom's human coalition were to intervene, it would be a different situation.

"Angelo, this…"

The Duchess was a little worried. After all, the one taking care of the child was an ignorant and uncouth hobgoblin. If he had any malicious intentions along the way, wouldn't Fidel be in great danger? However, the Duchess was also very clear about her husband Angelo's true thoughts. Being able to think of having their young son taken away was probably the greatest sign of weakness and compromise he could offer. If she tried to dissuade him, she was afraid it would only dispel his idea.

"Don't worry, my lady. I'm not going to hand the child over to this hobgoblin right away. Anyway, this hobgoblin still needs to recuperate from his injuries at our manor. There's still time to observe his character and personality."

As an old couple of several decades, Angelo naturally understood his wife's worries, so he comforted her with a few words in a timely manner.

Alan naturally didn't know that Angelo, this human noble, already had his eye on him. However, since Fidel, this little student, came along, his days of recuperation had become more enjoyable.

On weekdays, besides recuperating and exercising to recover, Alan didn't have to worry about other things. Naturally, the servants in the manor took care of everything early on. In his spare time, Fidel would happily run over to seek instruction in martial arts. Alan would casually teach him a thing or two. Life was comfortable, but after a long time, it became boring. Thinking that he had finally come to human society, it would be a waste not to experience human life.

Secretly sneaking out of the manor, Alan headed towards the bustling area of the town. The sight before him looked good. Fields of wheat grew vigorously, the tops filled with ears. The leaves gradually turned yellow, and a glance made it seem as if he were in an ocean of wheat. A gentle breeze caressed them, creating rustling sounds.

At least in the area of planting, Alan had to admit that humans' talent was too strong. The neat fields, the straight and crisscrossing canals, the interconnected ditches, and the orderly spaced waterwheels and windmills in the distance, the entire system was developed solely for planting, far more scientifically effective than the planting in their village.

Farmers and scarecrows stood interspersed in the fields, both to drive away the birds and beasts in the sky and to guard against the lazy and gluttonous vagrants in the town, preventing them from wasting the grain.

After entering the town, the scene became much more miserable. A smoky atmosphere enveloped the air. The smells of human excrement and decaying household garbage mixed together, which was very pungent, even not as comfortable as the current Green Lake Village. In the alleys and on both sides of the avenues, there were vagrants of all kinds, either collapsed on the ground resting or leaning against the walls, lazy and idle, with sallow faces and strange odors, even worse than the goblins in Green Lake Village.

Now, the goblins in Green Lake Village were no longer the barbaric people of the past who never knew how to groom themselves. As they interacted more with the outside world, their lives became better and better. Daily morning washing and bathing every three or four days made every goblin look clean and tidy.

Alan's hobgoblin appearance was not surprising in the eyes of humans, and no one watched him. Occasionally, Alan could also find the existence of other alien races such as orcs and dwarves among the passing pedestrians, which made him feel a lot more at ease.

There were very few pedestrians in the town, and they came and went in a hurry, their faces also very cold, because if they were even slightly amiable, a group of ragged children and old people would beg for all kinds of food, which was very annoying.

"Boss, is it… is it inappropriate for us to do it now?"

The deepest alleys were the easiest to hide dirt and grime. At this time, a group of 3-4 adult men with some muscles were hiding, furtively staring at a pair of vigilant teenagers outside the alley, squatting in a pile of garbage, rummaging for food.

"Go to hell! We haven't seen food for days! We're counting on catching these two little guys and sending them to the Southern Duke's manor to exchange for a few bites to eat!!"

A square-faced man with messy whiskers and fierce eyes impatiently kicked a subordinate beside him who was having second thoughts.

"I'm going to catch these two little guys today! If anyone dares to interfere, I'll take care of him too!!"

After saying this, the square-faced man rushed out directly. Before the two prey could react, he grabbed the hair of the two dirty-faced teenagers with one hand each and dragged them back into the dark alley.

"Ah!!! Help!!!"

"Let go of me!! You bad guys!!"

The two teenagers who were suddenly attacked screamed miserably and roared angrily, trying to attract the attention of others by shouting.

Outside the alley, many eyes shot over, but few people really stood up. More people watched all this indifferently. A few men who still had some blood were ready to move, but their courage was sapped by the fierce words of the square-faced man when he turned his head.

"Whoever dares to come over, I'll kill him today!!"

The square-faced man was carrying an uneasy teenager in one hand, his eyes radiating fiercely when he turned his head. Behind him, 3 subordinates appeared one after another to support their boss, while also helping the square-faced man to restrain the struggling teenagers and strangle their little mouths that kept calling for help.

In full view of the public, the two teenagers were dragged into the depths of the alley, and then there was no more news of them.

The 4 human hooligans dragged the two teenagers all the way, turning left and right in the alley, and even had time to give the two teenagers a rough wash by a well on the way. After cleaning one of the teenagers, it was discovered that she was a girl, which caused the ruffians to make strange noises and touch the little girl's body up and down.

"What are you doing!! This is the key to our exchange for rice and grain today. If anyone can't control himself, I'll help you cool off right now!!"

Fortunately, the square-faced man's mind was still clear, and he stopped these lustful bastards in time. He gave each of them a big kick, which made the subordinates quiet down.

On the other side, the girl's teenage companion stared wide-eyed, with a man-eating anger deep in his eyes, but because his hands and feet were bound, he couldn't make any movements.

Behind this group of people, Alan watched the whole process of this incident with cold eyes, and even the process of several hooligans sending the two teenagers to a manor about the size of Duke Angelo's manor and exchanging them for a small bag of grain was seen by Alan.

Alan only needed to stay in the dozens of dark alleys in the town for a while to see a similar incident. The surrounding vagrants were already accustomed to it, and they were even too lazy to resist. Besides staying far away from these places, there was no other action.

The patrolling members who occasionally passed by in the town ignored the actions of these hooligans. Even if things happened in front of them, they seemed to have not heard or seen anything. It wasn't until a certain moment when Alan saw the patrol captain on the street with a group of hooligans, receiving a bulging small bag from the other party's hand, that he suddenly understood why this group of patrol members acted like this.

Of course, most of the teenagers who were secretly caught were sent to a dozen wealthy families in the town. Alan had curiously sneaked into these people's homes and spied on them. What he saw could be said to be unbearable. The so-called noble life of these humans was so lewd that it almost ruined Alan, a bumpkin from the wilderness, his three views!

That fat-headed, big-eared human female whose appearance was comparable to an ogre...

The more Alan saw, the more he felt that it was really meaningless.