Chapter 25: The War Horn

"Gobuda, you don't need this. From now on, you won't go out hunting. I have other tasks for you."

When it was Gobuda's turn, Li Meng skipped over him.

Gobuda stood aside, disappointed.

Those weapons looked so appealing—even just a touch would be satisfying.

Soon, each Goblin Leader received dozens of spears.

At their signal, the Goblin Leader's subordinates swarmed in and carried off the spears.

It wasn't until over half an hour later that the wooden house quieted down.

The goblins outside dispersed as well.

The young goblins returned to their nurseries to continue eating and drinking.

Once they reached adolescence, they would join their fathers' hunting teams.

Goblins had absolute loyalty to their fathers, provided the father was stronger than them.

If the offspring's strength surpassed their father's, the father would be replaced.

For goblins, the concept of "father" didn't exist.

Their loyalty came from bloodlines; only the strongest goblin could become the leader of that lineage.

The adult goblins, meanwhile, went hunting with their respective teams.

"Gobuda, you don’t have your own hunting team yet, right?"

Inside the wooden house, Gobuda nodded quickly.

He grinned, fawning.

"Boss, my offspring haven’t come of age yet."

For any subordinate that evolved into a Goblin Leader, Li Meng granted breeding rights.

Goblins already had strong reproductive capabilities—almost a guaranteed success with every attempt.

Li Meng picked up a crossbow from the corner and walked outside.

"Follow me!"

Gobuda obediently followed behind his boss.

The two left the wooden house and headed into the forest outside.

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"Do you know what this is?"

Li Meng held the crossbow in both hands and cocked it with one hand.

Looking at the weapon in his boss's hands, Gobuda shook his head.

He had never seen such a weapon before.

Li Meng grinned, pulled out a bolt from his waist, and loaded it.

This crossbow was something Li Meng had spent nearly a month crafting.

Its structure was very simple.

It resembled a combination of a bow and a block of wood.

"This is a crossbow, a weapon similar to a bow."

Having never left the Goblin Forest in his life, Gobuda naturally didn’t know what a crossbow was.

Li Meng held the crossbow with both hands and aimed at a large tree fifty meters away.

"Swoosh!"

Li Meng pulled the trigger, and the bolt shot out.

In the forest, a streak of black light flashed.

A "thud" sound was heard as the bolt embedded itself into the tree trunk fifty meters away.

The sheer force made the tail of the bolt quiver.

Li Meng walked toward the large tree fifty meters away.

Upon reaching the tree, Li Meng inspected the bolt embedded in the trunk.

He found that the bolt’s entire head and part of the shaft were deeply embedded into the wood.

"Boss, this… this is incredible."

Gobuda was shocked by the power of the weapon in his boss's hands.

To penetrate so deeply from such a distance...

If it hit someone, they’d surely die, wouldn’t they?

Thinking about this, Gobuda looked at the crossbow in his boss's hands with a face full of fear.

If the boss wanted to shoot him, he would be doomed.

"The power is satisfactory."

Li Meng was quite pleased with the crossbow's power.

"Let’s go back."

With the crossbow’s power confirmed, the next step was figuring out how to mass-produce it.

Over the following days, Li Meng began teaching Gobuda how to craft crossbows.

The teaching lasted over a month.

At first, Gobuda was the only apprentice.

As time went on, dozens of adolescent goblins joined in the work.

The sound of wood carving in the wooden house became even more lively.

Every day, a large amount of wood shavings and waste were cleared out of the wooden house.

"This... isn’t bad!"

Another new day arrived, and Li Meng was inspecting the works of his goblin subordinates in the wooden house.

Piles of unfinished crossbows were stacked in the corners.

The crossbows varied in size—some were slightly larger, while others were smaller.

The craftsmanship was extremely crude, but they were still usable.

Since these were handmade, it was impossible to achieve uniform specifications for each crossbow.

"Next, we need to obtain spider silk for the bowstrings!"

Without bowstrings, these crossbows were nothing more than pieces of wood.

The thought of the Ghost Spider Forest gave Li Meng a headache.

Stealing spider silk wasn’t difficult. As long as they didn’t venture deep into the Ghost Spider Forest, there wouldn’t be much danger.

However, the Ghost Spider Forest was too close to the swamp.

If the Goblin hunting teams headed to the Ghost Spider Forest, they would inevitably be targeted by the Lizardmen of the White Scale Tribe.

"It seems we’ll have to act on a large scale this time."

Looking at the mountain of crossbows in front of him, Li Meng thought to himself.

A large-scale operation could effectively reduce losses.

It would also allow them to steal enough spider silk in one go.

Once the Lizardmen in the swamp were eliminated, the Ghost Spider Forest could become a resource point for the tribe.

"Gobuda, go sound the war horn!"

Gobuda, who was busy carving wood, looked up at his boss in confusion.

Why blow the war horn?

When the war horn sounded, the hunting teams in the field would rush back as quickly as possible.

Was the boss planning to start a war?

Gobuda grinned, his face showing excitement.

He quickly stood up and ran toward the outer gate.

Not long after, the deep sound of a horn echoed from a fifty-meter-tall watchtower in the forest.

"Whooo!"

The long horn sound reverberated across the land.

Hunting teams scattered throughout the area looked toward the direction of the tribe almost simultaneously.

All the hunting teams immediately abandoned their hunts.

"Quick, return to the tribe!"

In the dim forest, a group of goblins carrying spears sprinted.

Looking around, the forest was filled with the running figures of green-skinned goblins.

Among them, one goblin stood out, particularly tall and strong.

It was Gobuqiang. As he ran, he urged his subordinates onward.

By the afternoon of the next day, all the hunting teams had returned to the tribe.

Within the tribe, a dense crowd of green-skinned goblins gathered in front of the largest wooden house.

Their figures stretched out in all directions, covering a large section of the forest.

Their numbers were no less than five hundred, likely more.

Each goblin held a spear approximately 1.5 meters long.

The sight of countless spears created an impressive spectacle.

"Gobuba, Gobuka, Gobuda—your three hunting teams will follow me to the Ghost Spider Forest!"

"Gobuqiang, Gobuliang—you two will guard the tribe and protect the breeding grounds."

"The rest of the hunting teams will continue hunting to supply food for the breeding grounds!"

Since arriving in this forest, over two months had passed.

The tribe’s population was rapidly approaching the 1,000 mark.

Currently, the tribe had eleven hunting teams.

The number of goblins in each team varied.

The largest teams had fifty to sixty goblins, while the smallest had only thirty to forty.

However, as time went on, the number of goblins in each hunting team would only grow larger.

Standing at the wooden house’s entrance, Li Meng issued orders to his goblin subordinates.