Chapter 38

Seeing that Huhe and Lyk already finished with their foes, Zuyuan shrugged his shoulders and mentioned XB11 to continue to fly. 

Fighting occasionally for any branches that went to them, they were able to proceed without trouble. 

"How much longer?" Zuyuan asked, turning his face to Huhe.

"Not long." Huhe replied as he fought back the living branches.

Zuyuan nodded and looked forward, gazing past the wilderness and all its monstrous vines. Not too long after that, an opening became visible beyond the trees. "There it is."

"Wooohooo!" Lyk shouted, seemingly having fun as XB11 flew towards the forest exit. "We made it, ya pricks!"

Zuyuan shaked his head, by this time starting to get used to Lyk's funny behavior. "Right on time too." He muttered, checking the timer of his quest.

Only an hour remained, had they been a bit late then the system would have claimed his life.

Once XB11's body passed through the final layer of branches, what the group saw was a big lush grass clearing with numerous wooden houses. It was far more sophisticated than the other goblin's village  that Zuyuan had been at, however in his eyes that had seen modern cities it was still a run down shack town.

"So, this is chief's town?" Zuyuan spoke, looking over the town from above.

There were quite a few goblins and hobgoblins roaming the dirt streets, some notice the floating iron bird above them.

"Yes, this would be it." Huhe replied, "Do you see the big tree in the center? The house atop it is where the chieftain lives." 

"A tree house? Seriously?" Zuyuan asked, rather surprised at the revelation.

"What's wrong with a tree house? Ya prick?" Lyk asked.

Zuyuan sighed, "Nothing… Let's just get on with meeting the guy already."

'The sooner I'm away from this idiot, the better.' Zuyuan thought.

Watching their unexpected guest from the sky, some goblins ran towards the nearby hobgoblins warriors and informed them. Soon, many hobgoblins warriors and archers took their position to receive Zuyuan's group. 

Landing right on the wooden gate, Zuyuan jumped off of XB11 and went to speak to the guards, "I'm the missionary sent by the system." 

"Who the heck are you?!" One of the hobgoblin guards shouted, pointing his blade towards Zuyuan.

"Let me talk with your chief, I'm on a tight schedule." Zuyuan said calmly.

"Why should we let you, you're just a stranger! Men, surround him!" The hobgoblin yelled, and the guards began to move in towards Zuyuan. 

"Wait!" Huhe interjected,shouting loudly before there could be any conflict that would otherwise happen, "The chief and the heads had been expecting him and his kind, there-" 

Before Huhe could continue, a dagger flew right towards Zuyuan's head. Catching the dagger's handle midair, Zuyuan glanced where it had come from and saw two humans walking towards his direction. 

"Oh, not bad." said one of the two. Both of them were girls around the age of twenty. Each had different attire, with one wearing leather armor and belts full of throwing daggers, a sword on her waist, and shield on her left arm. The other one wore a bulletproof vest from the army, with a sniper rifle on her back, two revolver handguns on both sides of her waist, and a military dagger strapped right on her back.

"Missionaries.." muttered Zuyuan as he frowned his eyebrows. Staring at them with a cold gaze, Zuyuan asked, "Why did you try to attack me?" 

Snorting, the woman with the bulletproof vest said with disdain, "That's barely counts for an attack. Don't be a pu*sy." 

Snickering right beside her, the girl with leather armor poked her companion and said, "Let's go back. There's other things to do, sis." 

Nodding in agreement, both of them turned their body and went past the gate without any inspection from the hobgoblin guards. 

Watching their conversation, one of the hobgoblins' guards became doubtful and asked, "Are you one of them?" 

Raising his eyebrows, Zuyuan replied, "If you meant by one of the humans, then yeah I am." 

Shaking his head, the hobgoblins were about to reply but had been stopped by the others. Then, a hobgoblin with a better looking armor and weapon stepped forward and spoke, "Go ahead. The chief has been waiting. Better not let him wait longer because his temper is shorter than Okzolondo on the beach." 

Puzzled by the unfamiliar word or name, Zuyuan shrugged his shoulders and went inside, followed by XB11, Huhe, and Lyk. But as the last two were about to enter, the hobgoblin from before stopped them in their tracks and said, "Not you guys. We have something to ask from both of you." 

"Sure… ?" Lyk answered, uncertain with what these people wanted from him. 

"I'll go ahead then." seeing that both of them would have something to do, Zuyuan told them to do what they should and went on his business as well. 

'Something's feel strange..' Moving his gaze around, he saw that a lot of hobgoblins and goblins warriors alike saw him with a weird gaze. Guiding his Qigong to his ear to raise his perception, Zuyuan was able to hear pieces and bits of what they murmured to each other. 

"D*mn.. Another human again? They're just gonna empty our food supply and make us starve!" 

"I don't know where these creatures called humans came from. Someone talked about a system-what now?" 

"Why would the chief and the tribe's heads let them stay as if they are important guests!? This doesn't make any sense.." 

'So.. Most of them don't even know about us, huh..' concluded Zuyuan as he walked to the staircase that led up the tree of the chief's home. 

'Hm?' As he was getting closer to the chief's residence, Zuyuan saw more humans, lizardmen, some beings with heads of spiders, however they had a humanoid body, and so on. Without guessing it for a second time, Zuyuan could tell that all of them were missionaries. 

'It's like a gathering..' 

Some of them threw a curious glance on his side, but most of them decided to ignore him and XB11. With that, Zuyuan proceeded to the staircase and went to the top of the tree.